


And this old world is a new world

by ifidoitsyou



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Actor Harry, Alcohol, Barrista Louis, Famous Harry, Hurt/Comfort, Liam/Sophia mentioned, Louis has a really cute cat called Dave and Harry loves him, Louis is a bit lost in his life, M/M, Non-Famous Louis, Smoking, Songwriter Louis, They're drunk on a few occasions, bi louis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-07
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-05 13:32:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 44,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5377058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ifidoitsyou/pseuds/ifidoitsyou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis works in a little coffee shop although he hates coffee but what can you do when you're pretty much living day by day trying to ignore that dream of yours you're too scared to pursue. And then Harry enters the scene, or more precisely the coffee shop. He's beautiful and kind and funny and also famous and not in town for very, very long. But that doesn't keep Louis from maybe falling for him a bit and his friends from randomly inviting him along to go golfing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And this old world is a new world

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lainy122](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lainy122/gifts).



Louis opened the door to the coffee shop and was immediately hit with a wave of heat that contrasted with the freezing cold of the outside. It was only mid November but it felt like it could start snowing any second. Niall was already behind the counter switching on the machines.

“Hi” he said as he went to the stockroom in the back to pull off his coat and beanie and put on the black apron with the little golden steaming cup embroidered on the front pocket.

“What's up, mate?” Niall asked, taking all the syrups and sauces out of the fridge. The “little cup of home” was a lovely, little place on the outskirts of Doncaster, but most of the time people just called it the “cuppa”. The wooden floor creaked when you walked over it, none of the chairs matched, the sofas were too low so that you couldn't get out of them any more and the wall behind the counter was littered with pictures ranging from the owner's family vacation to that one time someone thought they had met Prince William but it ended up only being a random stranger. It was cosy, it was homely and it definitely wasn't well known. That last part didn't bother Louis too much, that just meant less work.

 

He went through the shop and filled the shelves back up with all the different coffee types they sold. It was just a chaos of brands, most of them coming from god knows where since the owners spent most of their time tasting different roasts all over the world. Half those packets weren't even written in English which only helped Louis with finding out how much bullshit he could tell customers before they started getting suspicious. Louis admired their passion even if he didn't know how someone could like coffee this much. They sold a few mugs too, although most of them had designs from last century. Vintage, he guessed. He barely had time to wipe off the tables before the first customers arrived. In the morning people mostly just came in to get a coffee to go and disappeared right after. Which honestly was way better than customers sitting around and him having to pretend to be busy.

 

That morning a few of the regulars showed up before a new face appeared. It was a strange thing to see, like this person had mistaken their little coffee shop for a high-end boutique. He was wearing black boots with silver buckles that reflected the calm orange light of the room, his long legs were trapped in black pants so tight they probably had been sewed on, he had tucked his white shirt with black dots into his pants and a beige coat was loosely hanging over his shoulders. The only thought Louis had as he looked at the strangers face was “Shit, you're beautiful.” He couldn't believe his hair was real, it had those curls that you only see in old school Disney movies and with the way it softly swayed in the gush of air coming from outside he could feel his knees getting weak. The stranger looked around for a second before locking eyes with Louis. He flashed him a shy smile and Louis' immediate reaction was to look down. He really wasn't at the top of his customer service game today. He composed himself enough to look up and put on his best fake smile. With how green those eyes were it took him another minute before remembering to speak.

 

“Hi, what will it be today?” Louis asked, the pitch of his voice a bit higher than usual. At least he had managed to get a full sentence out without stuttering, that was something to be proud of, right?

“Hi, just a tall black coffee, please.” He said in a rough voice that Louis could feel resonate in his bones.

“Sure you don't want something fancy to match your outfit?” Louis smirked and raised an eyebrow. The stranger chuckled and Louis' face almost dropped with how the lights danced around in his eyes.

“No, coffee will do just fine.” he answered.

“Alright Niall, you heard the man.” Louis said as he punched in the order. “That will be two pounds fifty-two, please.” The stranger searched through his wallet for a bit before handing him the money. Louis had never been the biggest fan of extremely visible tattoos but that little black cross was sitting perfectly on the stranger’s hand. He was still softly smiling at Louis as he took the cup from Niall and said goodbye. Louis stared at him as he went outside, cursing his coat for being so long and depriving him from the sight of a probably amazing ass in skin tight jeans.

 

“Damn!” Niall exclaimed.

“Yeah.” Louis breathed out, leaning against the counter, still staring at the door.

“Can you believe that just happened?” Niall asked, a tad bit too excited about some random hot guy.

“No.” Louis whispered until the gears in his brain had started moving again and he remembered that Niall was as straight as an arrow.

“Wait, what?” he turned around and frowned at him. Niall looked at him confused and it became clear that they had not been talking about the same thing. Niall narrowed his eyes at him and Louis felt like he was missing a huge plot point.

 

“That was Harry Styles.” Niall said faintly. It took him a second before he realised that that was the name he had seen plastered in every newspaper lately, that had been tossed around during every radio talk show, that even Esther, who owned the coffee shop and who spend half the year nose deep in coffee beans all around the world, knew about.

“Wait...” The information just didn't want to settle into his brain. “Like...” It had always seemed utterly impossible that anyone even remotely famous would end up anywhere near the little cup of home.

“How did you not recognise Harry Styles?” Niall's face was starting to light up, a smile forming on his lip.

“Shut up, I don't watch weird indie movies.” It was true, even though he had shot to fame recently, Harry Styles had only played in those kind of serious movies that only gets shown at 2 p.m. on a Monday in a movie theatre that still has breaks in the middle of the film. They had called it “art-house cinema” on the radio and Louis had switched the channel the second they had started describing it. Weirdly, the last movie he had been in had had such a big success that everyone just had to see it. Louis couldn't even say what it was about.

“Oh my god Louis, you flirted with a celebrity without even realising it!” Niall was full on laughing by now. He had, hadn't he? But those eyes had been so mesmerizing that he somehow hadn't looked at the whole picture. Hopefully he would never see him again. Suddenly, his phone pinged.

 

**Niall (@NiallerOfficial)**

When your co-worker flirts with a celebrity and doesn't even realize it. Get it @TheTommoWay !!

 

With narrowed eyes he looked up to see Niall still cackling about it, but this time with his phone in hand.

 

**L to the W (@TheTommoWay)**

@NiallerOfficial I genuinely hate you

 

~

 

Louis walked into his apartment and closed the door with his foot, taking off his coat at the same time. He tossed it over the back of his couch before sweeping his cat up and letting himself fall backwards on the couch. He switched on the TV and changed the channels until finally settling on an old rerun of the O.C.. Dave rolled around on his chest, stretching himself without a care of if his paws would end up in Louis' face or not. His mum had given him the grey cat so he wouldn't feel so alone in his apartment but he wished she hadn't chosen a long haired one. Harry Styles' name had nagged at the back oh his head for the whole day. He knew that there was going to be a filming somewhere nearby but it had just been information his mother had casually brought up in a conversation, he didn't know anything about that movie. Although it seemed a reasonable enough excuse for an actor to be somewhere. He just hoped the guy only had a small role in it. One embarrassing encounter with someone who's shoes cost more than all his furniture combined was enough.

 

He took his phone out and typed the name into the search bar. The fist thing he saw were a bunch of pictures of him and god he was stunning. Right, that wasn't the reason he was looking him up, a little concentration here. Under that were just some basic information like his age and were he was from. Louis frowned at the fact that he was apparently only 21. That guy definitely didn't look like it. He clicked on the link to IMDB and scrolled until the filmography section came up. None of those movies rang a bell except for “Fiddler's charm” which was that one movie everyone swore was like the new coming of Christ. At the top of the list was a movie called “the shunned house” which was still marked as filming.

 

He clicked on the link and read the description which truthfully didn't sound too boring. It wasn't a long description and it just mentioned something about ghost-hunting which really didn't sound very art-house-y to Louis. He scrolled down to look at the actors and sure as hell, the first image had the same face he had seen that morning. So much for only having a small role in it. So he was the protagonist in a movie that looked like it would mainly be filmed in one house. The chances were relatively high that he would be in Doncaster for a long while. Louis could deal with that. He just needed to have enough luck for Harry Styles to not come into the coffee shop again. Or maybe he could quit his job and start working somewhere where he would one hundred percent not see him. Like, in a school. He probably wouldn't run into him in a school. Dave stood up only to turn a few times on his stomach and curled up into a ball again. With one hand Louis absent mindedly caressed his fur and with the other one he opened up the twitter app.

 

**L to the W (@TheTommoWay)**

How much would you pay me if I finally watched fiddler’s charm?

 

**Lottie Tomlinson (@LottieT)**

@TheTommoWay Ooooh my god you definitely definitely have to watch it !!!

 

**Niall (@NiallerOfficial)**

@TheTommoWay Man you're whipped

 

**L to the W (@TheTommoWay)**

@NiallerOfficial Shut up, it's called professional research

 

 

~

 

It was 8:15 a.m. the next day when he came in again. He appeared like a great shadow behind the two college girls Louis was serving at that moment. One of them froze in place, eyes wide open, when she turned around and saw him. He smiled faintly at her with half open eyes like he had just rolled out of bed three minutes ago and it warmed Louis' heart like the Mediterranean sun. He had pulled a white beanie over his head and his curls were lazily sticking out of it. As the other girl pulled her friend to the side Louis realised that he had about two seconds until Harry would be looking at him. He put on his best smile and raised his eyes. Their eyes met and Louis got the sudden urge to tuck him into bed and sing lullabies to him.

 

“Do you know her?” Smooth. Harry blinked at him slowly, eyebrows furrowed in confusion, timid smile still on his lips.

“Oh, eh, no … I'm an actor.” he answered in his raspy voice.

“Huh.” Louis went through all the possibilities of things he could say to him without sounding like a creep until he realised that the longer he didn't respond, the creepier it got. “Can I get your order then?” Wonderful, now he looked like he didn't give a crap. This was going great.

“Yeah, sure, just a tall black coffee please.” Harry responded.

“Niall, just a tall black coffee for the gentleman here.” He battled with himself about if he should try to start a conversation or not while Harry was rummaging around his wallet. He was a person after all, he would probably like being spoken to like anyone else. On the other hand, he might just want to be left alone, although he didn't give out that vibe. As Harry handed him the money he decided that false shyness wasn't going to bring him anywhere in life.

 

“So, how long are you gonna be here?” he asked, hopefully casually.

“Oh, I'm not sure I'm allowed to say that.” Harry answered while taking his coffee from Niall.

“Allright, not like I've got anyone to tell it to anyway. I can keep secrets from me mum.” Louis smirked.

“You work in a coffee shop, I feel like you would have a lot of people to tell it to.” Harry pointed out with a smug look. The door of the shop opened and a guy in a grey suit came storming in like the world was ending in two weeks and he had no seconds to waste. Louis scoffed at Harry, his grin hidden behind his coffee cup.

“Have a nice day.” Louis said, trying to be as nonchalant as he could.

“Bye.” Harry answered in a low voice, shy smile on his lips as the lights danced around his eyes like fireflies.

 

“Small cappuccino.” The guy in the suit commanded, not even looking at him before Louis had any time to try and get a glimpse of Harry's ass as he walked out the shop. Rude. The guy was gone as fast as he had come in and it's not like Louis wasn't used to his fair share of businessmen who didn't have time for anything ever, even if they weren't their usual crowd, it's just that he thought that saying hello was the bare minimum someone could do. Louis turned around to find Niall weirdly grinning at him.

“What?” Louis snapped.

“Stop flirting with world famous actors.” Niall laughed.

“I'm not ...” Louis started, scowling at him. “Why shouldn't I?” he asked, in mock offence, and turned around. “Hey, maybe he'll end up paying off my college debts.” Niall snorted at that. “He could just pay me for doing nothing and looking pretty. I would be an amazing trophy wife.”

“You would actually have to look pretty in the first place for that.” Niall grinned, leaning against the counter with his arms crossed.

“Yeah come back to me about that when something else than your own hand touches your dick.” Louis retorted without looking at him. Niall bent over laughing at that like he hadn't just been insulted. Louis smiled victoriously as he went to the back to stock up on small coins again.

 

“Oh yeah, you wanna go out tomorrow evening?” Niall shouted from the front.

“Yeah sure, not like I've got anything else going on in my life.” he whispered the last part more to himself than to anyone else.

“Is Stan still in town? He can come too if he wants.” Niall was leaning against the frame of the door to talk to him.

“Yeah he's only going back on Monday. I'll ask him.” He took out his phone and typed up a quick text message to Stan. “Where did you wanna go?”

“We were thinking about the Priory. We went to that Secrets place last week and it was just overcrowded. I really think it's just hyped up.” They went back to the front but the room was basically empty except for the two girls that had recognised Harry.

“Eh, give it a few months and the novelty of it will have faded away.”

 

**Helena (@CupcakesAndBooks)**

OMG I just saw @HarryStyles in this random coffeeshop here! He was wearing a beanie, that was the cutest thing I've seen in my whole life!!

 

**Harry Styles Updates (@HSUpdates)**

A fan saw Harry in a coffee shop in Doncaster today where's he'll be filming the shunned house over the next few weeks.

 

~

 

Friday had started pretty horribly. He hadn't been able to fall asleep, his brain on overdrive again, analysing every little detail that was going on in his life. Even though he thought that there wasn't a lot going on, but that was probably the problem in the first place. He tried keeping himself from thinking about what the hell he wanted his future to look like by standing up again and playing FIFA. It had been 3 a.m. when he had turned off his x-box and just lay down on his sofa and fallen asleep, Dave lying rolled up pressed to his stomach. Thank god for alarm clocks on phones that you can take with you wherever you go.

 

So he had woken up groggy and feeling like shit. He had been scrolling through twitter, trying to ignore the fact that he should really be getting up. His dash was just completely dead. Or more precisely, everything he saw just made him want to groan. So he just went and added his own annoying tweet to the mix.

 

**L to the W (@TheTommoWay)**

Is it ok to start drinking in the morning if you already feel like shit?

 

He almost closed the app but then stopped. He already felt like shit, he couldn't possibly feel ever more shitty by giving in to his curiosity and checking him out, right? It wasn't like he was stalking him, he just wanted to see if he even had a twitter account. He wasn't even gonna follow him. So he typed in Harry Styles into the search bar and clicked on the account that had the little blue sign next to it. The last tweets were from a few days ago.

 

**Harry Styles (@HarryStyles)**

This hotel room actually has a better shower than I have at home. H

 

**Maggie Styles (@CharminglyStylish)**

@HarryStyles Are you planning on going to a black keys concert when they're in the UK??

**Harry Styles (@HarryStyles)**

@CharminglyStylish That completely depends on how the film schedule is but I'll definitely try! H

 

**Amanda (@PowerpuffBubbles)**

@HarryStyles How excited are you that you will be working with @zaynmalik ???

**Harry Styles (@HarryStyles)**

@PowerpuffBubbles Very, I've been admiring his talent for a long time and it is such an honour to be able to work with such an incredible actor. H

 

**Harry Styles (@HarryStyles)**

Tomorrow will be the first day of shooting. Very excited to finally be able to work with the brilliant @Lynne_Ramsay H

 

**Harry Styles (@HarryStyles)**

“Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

 

He stared at that last tweet for quite some times, wondering if he should retweet it or not. It's not that Harry would notice it, or that he even would know it was him, but Niall would probably see it and he wasn't in the mood to defend his actions today. Actions that totally didn't mean anything anyway. He stopped thinking when he got a notification.

 

**Stan Lucas (@Stanley_Lucas)**

@TheTommoWay You better light up before tonight or I'll just leave you on the curb and get smashed with Niall

 

He couldn't even be bother to answer. What the hell was up with him? He needed a distraction and the easiest was hating himself for going through with the decision of taking a cold shower.

And of course it had only started raining once he had already stepped outside without an umbrella. He arrived at the shop with a soaked beanie, hair that stuck to his face and flooded shoes he had to walk in all day long. He really didn't have the patience to deal with any annoying customers today. But that would have been too easy wouldn't it? He didn't know if people were genuinely trying to piss him off or if his bullshit tolerance was just very low today.

 

Of course Harry came in again that day, because he had apparently deemed the coffee shop worthy enough to count him as a regular. He shook off the hood of his coat to reveal that he had put up his hair in a bun. Louis thought that that bun looked prettier than most flowers he had ever seen. God, he really needed sleep.

“Good morning, I see you have graced us with your presence again.” Louis said, trying to not sound too irritated which he was sure failed miserably. Harry was holding a plastic bag in his left hand, that was adorably hiding up his coat sleeve, with the logo of the bakery from down the road on it.

“Good morning.” he replied, dimples on full display. “Good coffee should be rewarded.”

“You hear that Niall, this is the only human being who thinks you actually make good coffee.” Louis turned towards Niall, one hand on his hip.

“He's lucky you're not making it.” Niall countered with a smile. Louis smirked and turned towards Harry.

 

“Same as yesterday?” He asked.

“Yes, please.” Harry said in his low voice and already offered his hand with the money. Louis held out his hand to take the coins but some of them slipped out, landing on the counter top and rolling their merry way until they fell off the edge. Louis put both hands on the edge of the counter and let his head fall down between his shoulders, breathing in deeply as he pressed his eyes shut.

“I'm … I'm so sorry, I can ...” Harry stammered as he rummaged in his pants pockets.

“No, no it's fine.” Louis waved him off and bent down to grab the coins that of course had decided to spread out evenly on the floor. “I'm sorry.” he mumbled and punched in the order. He furrowed his brows, the lack of sleep had left him with a numb pain at the back of his head.

 

“Is everything alright?” Harry asked.

“Yeah, yeah, I'm just tired, didn't sleep well last night.” Louis answered as he gave him his change back. “And then the day decided to just continue being annoying.” He brushed his fingers through his fringe, trying to get it out of his eyes. As Niall put down the cup of coffee in front of Harry, he searched around his plastic bag and took out a single chocolate cupcake that was decorated with little pastel flowers.

“I hope this little cup of cake will make you feel better.” He said as he handed it to Louis.

“Thanks.” He muttered, slightly confused, as he took it from him. Before Louis could say anything more, Harry had taken his coffee and vanished out into the cold again. Had a celebrity just given him a cupcake to cheer him up again? And had that same celebrity made a stupid pun with the name of the coffee shop?

 

“Ooooow that was cute.” Niall crooned.

“What the hell?” Louis murmured under his breath, still staring at the cupcake.

“Hey, don't complain about free cupcakes.” Niall said, playfully grabbing for it. “If you don't want it, I'll sacrifice myself for the greater cause.”

“Get away from me.” Louis proclaimed and turned his whole body around in an attempt to shield the cupcake from Niall's attack. It pretty much evolved into a wrestling match over the cupcake until he felt the need to shove most of it into his mouth. Niall finally let go of him so Louis stepped away and narrowed his eyes at him, mouth so full of cake that he almost couldn't chew any more.

“At least you are now one step closer to becoming a trophy wife, he's already buying you stuff.” Niall grinned as he turned around.

“Oh please, he was just pitying me.” Louis got out, mouth still full of crumbs.

 

~

 

He had fallen into bed again the second he had gotten home, not even taking off his clothes, ignoring Dave who was crying out for attention. His alarm had gone off three hours later but his eyes still burned when he opened them. He considered for one second to just go out with his glasses but quickly decided against it. He still had a little over an hour before he had to leave the house so he dragged himself into the shower. He leaned with his back against the cold wall and let the water warm him from the front. He couldn't be bothered to move, staring at the opposite wall while the rush of the shower drowned out every other noise.

 

He had these days every other week, where his brain decided that ignoring his problems just wasn't an option. Normally he was fairly good at the whole live one day after the other and just enjoy what life throws at you thing, but on days like yesterday thoughts of something bigger came creeping back up. It wasn't like he didn't have a dream in his life, he just panicked every time he thought about accomplishing it. He wanted it so bad, to just create music all day long, to swim in it, breath it, survive solemnly on that. But the Louis Tomlinson he knew that had barely been able to be quiet enough to pass high-school and had miserably failed at being organised enough for college, would never be material for a popstar. Just the thought of being in front of thousand of people who all had their eyes on you, judging you, criticising you. Louis was someone who needed attention, who thrived in situation where he could be the loudest but there are just some parts of your soul that you can't just put out there and then ignore what people say about it. That calmness in the seconds where you can't read what a person is thinking yet and you hold your breath until it feels like any moment you could shatter into a million pieces, just thinking about it made Louis want to throw up.

 

He pushed himself away from the wall and finally let the water run over his face. Hopefully going out would change his mind a bit. He was quickly done with washing off and stepped out of the shower, bundling himself up in a big towel. He walked through the apartment into his bedroom, hair still dripping. He wasn't sure what he wanted to wear yet. The skinny black jeans were a must, no questions asked. He just needed to avoid Dave until he was out of the house. He squeezed into them then sat down on his bed, chest bare, feet bare, staring at his open closet. He didn't really feel like bright colours today but going all black would be too boring, right?

 

He turned his gaze to the alarm clock on his night stand and groaned at the time. He was already running late. He wouldn't be able to eat anything before leaving if he still wanted to do his hair. He reluctantly stood up and grabbed a shirt at random which still ended up being a black vans t-shirt, even if it had a flower pattern inside the logo. So he was going all black after all. He grabbed his shoes and put them on in the bathroom, not bothering with socks. He put in his contact lenses before plugging in the hair dryer and styling his hair up into a quiff. His hair was still slightly damp when his phone lit up with a text from Stan.

 

_[20:34] Come outside Loser!_

 

He didn't bother answering. His hair would have to do for tonight, it would fall down with the heat of the club anyway. He took a detour through the kitchen, making sure Dave still had something to eat and then grabbed his coat, making sure he had his wallet and key with him and headed downstairs.

“Took you long enough, I'm freezing my balls off here.” Stan greeted him when he got out of the building.

“Should have worn a bigger coat if you're such a baby. Are you even allowed to be up this late?” Louis sneered at him as they walked down the road. Stan punched him in the arm.

“Don't pretend I'm not gonna end up being your babysitter again. I won't have time to hear your hungover, depressed ass whine about headaches tomorrow.”

“I'll just puke on you so you won't miss my smell when you're gone.”

 

~

 

By the time they had arrived at the club, Louis' toes were solid ice. He had to concede that the season where he could walk around without socks was officially over, the age of sweaty feet was upon him again. Niall and Bressie stood outside the club, black-painted brick walls, lilac door and windows, and a neon sign that read Priory and painted the whole street with faint purple hue.

“Good evening, gentlemen.” Louis greeted them, his hands clasped into fists in his coat pockets. A group of girls rushed between them before he could completely reach his friends. The smell of their perfume even overshadowed the lingering smell of puke you couldn't get out of the street any more, no matter how often you scrubbed it.

 

“Good evening to you too, sir.” Niall cheered before pulling them both into a hug.

“Hey mates.” Bressie said before simply shacking their hands. Although he was a good ten years older than them, it had never felt weird when they hung out together. Him and Niall did a lot of jamming together and some times Louis hung around, just listening to what they could come up with. When they had started urging him to join them he had always found excuses not to show up any more, some were legitimate reasons, most of the times everyone knew it was bullshit. One day, maybe, when he had stopped caring, he would actually join them. Maybe if they all ended up in the same retirement home, he thought.

 

 

~

 

The air reeked of sweat, you couldn't see past your group of friends with all the artificial smoke, his ears were in serious danger of bursting with how loud the music was, and the alcohol tasted cheaper than the reheated chips from the shop down the road that only survived on drunken people's dead taste buds. And still, all of that wasn't enough to cheer him up. He was already on his third drink, this time a vodka orange that really didn't mix well with the lingering taste of red wine he had in his mouth. Apparently his path of self destruction also included a stop for throwing up everything he had eaten that week.

 

“Drink this.” Stan pushed a shot glass into each of their hands and Louis downed it without questioning what it was. They had managed to stay a group but Niall had somehow pulled the two girls standing next to them into a discussion about football. Louis had almost gotten into an argument with one of them about the line-up of the Rovers before he had caught the look Bressie was giving him to calm down. Stan had somehow decided that the one way to get him out of his sad little bubble was to get him laid, which only resulted in him pointing out every person that looked like they were Louis type, which just evolved into him pointing out everyone in the club. Some even twice.

 

“Ok, what about that guy?” He pointed to a guy with a red plaid shirt and glasses.

“Nah.” This was worse than clothes shopping with his mum.

“Alright, what about the girl?” Pointing at the girl that was practically grinding on the guy.

“Stan, I think those two are already set.” He shouted over the loud music.

“Hey, automatic three way, double the fun.” Louis closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, counting to ten. Committing a murder while there were so many potential witnesses around wasn't a good idea.

 

“I'm going to the loo.” he muttered under his breath and started pushing his way away from the bar.

“Go get them tiger!” Stan shouted after him and Louis flipped him the bird without turning around. The floor in the bathroom was sticky and he was grateful they only lit up these rooms with purple lights that barely illuminated the black walls enough to recognise where the stall doors were. He sat down on a loo and let his head fall down. It felt like he was falling to the ground although his feet stayed solid in their place, which didn't keep him from swaying to the side and falling against the wall. At least now he was spinning the same way as the room.

 

He remembered how many drinks he had had, but the amount of shots someone had pushed into his hand was a bit more blurry. He softly giggled to himself, at the thought that he would totally have a hangover tomorrow and that he would whine his ass off to Stan, even if he was on the road. He pushed himself up again from the wall before he would doze off, which would just add a completely new layer of classy to this evening. He didn't really realise how long he spend on the toilet but no one had come to search for him yet so it couldn't be that long. He stumbled out into the hallway again and almost ran into a group of people that were waiting outside the bathrooms. He patted the back pockets of his pants and was astonished that he had managed to not lose his pack of cigarettes. They wouldn't be worried if he stepped outside for a fag, right? Right.

 

~

 

He had moved away a bit from the club. Some guys had been shouting at each other and he didn't want to end as collateral damage. Also, if you lit a cigarette in front of a club, it somehow shone a beacon of light on you that attracted all those cheap, free-cigarette hungry zombies. So he had started walking down the street until the rhythmic thumping of the club couldn't be heard any more. He slowly started to regret not taking his coat with him and the heat of the cigarette was definitely not enough to keep him from freezing to death. In the back of his mind he knew he should probably turn around or at least stop walking but that thought apparently never reached his feet. He did stop at one point, although he wasn't too sure which street he was in.

 

He sat down on the curb, his stomach was filing a lot of complaints right now and he had a very hard time ignoring them. He fell down backwards, the cold of the pavement taking his mind away from the heat that was rising in his throat. He could hear faint notes of blues and conversations but it didn't really register with him. It was some time before he could hear footsteps come towards him and stop. Maybe if he closed his eyes hard enough he could also ignore the presence next to him.

 

 

“Are you sure you want to do that?” At the sound of the voice his eyes shot open again. Harry was towering over him, the orange light from the street lamps gave his hair the colour of whiskey, his white pants were bracketed by a pair of black boots and a long black coat, his hands neatly stowed away in the pockets of it. Around his neck hung a midnight blue scarf embroidered with golden swirls.

“Wha?” Louis mumbled out, swallowing the end of the word.

“Lying on the floor when it's freezing cold outside?” Harry looked down on him with what was probably concern, Louis couldn't really tell from his position.

“Do you always look so fancy?” Louis asked and frowned. Harry glanced down on himself, opening up his coat, revealing a white shirt with golden and blue swirls on it. Louis seriously questioned this guy's fashion sense.

“What's wrong with my clothes?” Harry inquired and then glared at him.

“Who even wears white pants? Those pants are brighter ...” he tried pushing himself up with his elbows but as soon as he lifted his head he could taste the acid on his tongue. He muttered a low “Oh fuck” under his breath and hit the cold pavement again, covering his face with his hands.

 

“Are you alright?” Harry asked. Louis responded only with a low grunt. He heard ruffling and then felt something brush against his leg. He peaked through his fingers to see Harry sitting down next to him. What was he thinking? These streets weren't clean. You can't just sit down with pants the colour of freshly fallen snow wherever you want.

“Dude, stop!” Louis blurted out, pulling his hands away from his face. Harry stopped in his movement and looked bewildered over at him. “Are you really that rich that you don't care if your clothes get dirty any more?”

“I'm sitting on my coat, I can just get it cleaned afterwards.” he responded, dimples forming on his face. If moving wasn't so horrible, Louis would have punched him. He didn't even have the mental capacity to truly banter with Harry, he needed all his concentration to not puke next to someone that had had articles written about him repeatedly. How did this even happen? Last Friday had consisted of him burying himself under a ton of blankets while Dave obstructed his view of the TV and now he was lying drunk off his ass in the streets of Doncaster with a movie star by his side. Louis kind of wished he would go away so he could continue feeling like shit in peace.

 

“So I guess your day hasn't improved since this morning?” Harry asked.

“It peaked a little while eating that cupcake and taking a huge nap, but generally, it has been pretty fucking shit.” he slung his arm over his eyes in a wide motion. There was always enough time for being dramatic. He could feel something buzzing against his leg and he wondered if it was an earthquake or if he was really that drunk. Only when it stopped did he realise that it had probably been his phone. The music from the pub slowly tuned every other sound out, his body swaying lightly to the melancholic notes of the saxophone. He got lost in his thoughts of just breathing, in and out, in and out, in and out. His stomach was slowly calming down. Good. It took him a while before remembering that he wasn't alone.

 

“What are you still doing here?” he got out.

“I'm not just gonna leave you to freeze to death here because you were too drunk to care.” Harry answered.

“Oh please, I'm not gonna die.” he sneered, rolling his eyes behind his eyelids. “Don't they have any drunks lying around in Hollywood?”

“I've never actually been to L.A.” Harry admitted.

“What kind of failed actor are you that you've never been to L.A.?” Louis scoffed.

“That's just not what I've been focusing on. You know, there are a lot of different genres in film that don't get praised to the heavens by the general public and I just feel like those are often the one's with more heart that actually dare to try something new.” Louis sneered at that. Of course Harry was one of those people that looked at a painting of a white dot on a black canvas and then could tell you three hundred and sixty two different reasons why that dot was there.

“What? It's true.” Louis could hear in his voice that he was glaring at him. He sounded like a small child who's trying to explain to you that the way you're colouring is the wrong way and they don't realize that you're doing it on purpose. Or something like that. Whatever, he was drunk, he didn't need to make any sense. It was tooth rottingly adorable either way. “They all have these millions invested in it and these plans on how to make sure a movie will become a hit and there isn't any space for experiments in it. I know that there are also good artists there that still try to make actual art but as a whole, the industry in itself, Hollywood doesn't really leave a lot of options for people who would rather concentrate on the product than on the profit.”

 

“So British cinema is better than Hollywood?” Louis put his arms on the ground behind his head, turning his face towards Harry. He had his knees angled up and his arms casually lying on them. The light from the street lamp flowed like a golden river in the green meadow of his eyes. The wind was barely strong enough to make his locks dance lightly to the voice of Nina Simone. It felt like time slowed down and everything besides Harry going dark and Louis blamed it all on the alcohol.

“In some aspects, yes. In others, no.” Harry smiled shyly at him.

“What a revolutionary answer, Harry.” he said and turned his head to the sky, putting his arms over his eyes again before they transformed into ice cubes from the pavement. Harry giggled and the sound was the best thing Louis had heard all week. Oh god. He was crushing on a celebrity. How wonderful. He had to stop doing that right now immediately this second. This was definitely NOT a good idea.

 

“Hey, I don't even know your name.” Harry stated.

“Louis.” he answered him, trying to concentrate on the stuff he didn't like about him which was strangely all over shadowed by the echoes of his giggles. Damn, he was fucked.

“Nice to meet you, Louis.” his heart skipped at how soft his name sounded on Harry's tongue. Yep, he needed to get out of there. No time to lose. He sat up and leaned back on his outstretched arms, letting a burp escape. Good idea. Maybe if he was really disgusting he could scare him away. Which obviously wasn't working since his smile indicated that he was more amused by it than anything else. He could feel the same buzzing against his leg again but he was too busy trying to stand up semi gracefully to pick up his phone.

 

“Alright!” he exclaimed, standing on both his feet, hands on his hips. The next part of the plan was getting back to the club. Couldn't be that hard, right? Harry pushed himself up off the ground and stood next to him. He unrolled his scarf and slung it over Louis shoulders.

“No, no, no, you can't...” Louis tried to protest and undo the scarf again, but only got tangled up in it. “No, no, I can't … I can't take this … No.” he had never had this much trouble taking off a scarf in his life. Suddenly two huge hands wrapped around his wrists and gently tugged on them until he let go of the scarf.

“Stop being stupid and just take it.” Harry said with a huge smile on his face. Good thing at least one of them was amused by this situation. And did he just call him stupid? Louis was about to get upset about it when he felt his phone buzz again.

 

“Jesus fucking Christ I'm not the famous one here.” He muttered as he scrambled his phone out of the way too tight front pocket of his pants, it almost landing on the street in the process. He squinted his eyes at the screen and could barely read Niall's name before the phone was taken out of his hand. He opened his mouth to protest but Harry had already picked up the phone.

“Hi, I'm with Louis, he seems to be too drunk to operate a phone.” he said.

“Oii!” he actually protested this time, punching Harry on the arm who was grinning widely at him. He would have never thought that a movie star would ever disrespect him so much.

“Oh, it's Harry. Yeah, yeah, that Harry. No, everything's fine, I found him lying around on the ground. I don't know, maybe he needed a new perspective on the world. Where are you right now? Oh ok, what street is that on? Oh yeah, I see, I'll bring him around. Yeah alright, see you soon.” he hung up and handed it back. Louis narrowed his eyes as he snatched the phone away and put it back in his front pocket.

 

“He seems fairly giddy too.” Harry joked.

“Well, what d'ya expect? We don't go out for cheese and bingo.” Louis rolled his eyes and took his pack of cigarettes out of his back pocket. So apparently sitting on your cigarettes isn't a great idea. The few ones that were left in the pack were squished, dented and slightly wet. He made a mental note to go buy a new pack tomorrow. He picked one out that didn't look worse than he felt and offered the pack to Harry, raising his eyebrows questioningly. Harry shook his head and Louis shrugged as he lit the cigarette.

“You know you don't have to walk me home, right?” he said as he exhaled the smoke.

“I could also just leave you to wander around the city for the rest of the night but then who would make me coffee after you've inevitably died of the cold?” Harry answered.

“Now I see. This has nothing to do with me. This is all just about your incredible need for the best coffee the world has ever had the pleasure to taste.” he started to walk towards where he had come from, turning around so he was facing Harry and walking backwards. Harry followed him, shy smile on his lips as he looked at the ground. “But anyways, Niall is the one making the coffee, I'm merely the pretty face that makes that shabby place look halfway decent.” he continued.

 

“Oh, wait.” Harry murmured and made a motion like he was about to take off his coat.

“No!” Louis shouted, pointing one finger towards Harry. “No! I swear to God, if you take off your coat now to give it to me I will run away and you will never ever see me again!”

“But...” Harry started.

“Harry Styles, I am not some distressed princess who needs rescuing. I have only accepted your scarf because it smells really nice, I am not taking your coat!” he exclaimed. Wait, did he just say that Harry's scarf smelled really nice? Well, it was the truth, but Harry didn't need to know that he thought that.

“My scarf smells nice?” Harry repeated while putting his coat back on.

“Shut up.” Louis turned around and took another drag from his cigarette. Anyway, it wouldn't smell nice any more now that Louis was wearing it. “And I wasn't trying to get a new perspective on the world.” he mumbled out as he came to a halt at the end of the road and tried to find something that looked familiar.

 

How the hell had he ended up lost in his home town? And he was pretty sure he hadn't walked around for more than fifteen minutes, even if alcohol screwed a lot with your perception of time. Harry walked past him and down the road to the left like he had lived there for years. In no way would Louis let a stranger lead the way in the city he had spent twenty three years exploring, so he picked up his pace until he was in front of Harry again and pretended he knew exactly where he was going.

“You can't really get a new perspective on the world when you're drunk.” Harry said as he walked past Louis again, taking huge steps with those long legs that looked like they were made out of marble in those pants. Harry was challenging him and Louis would not accept that. If he wanted a competition he would get a competition. “Not a good one, anyway.” Harry added.

“I'm not finding a good one when I'm sober either, so it doesn't really matter.” Louis said as he picked up his speed and started running.

 

“Race me!” he shouted.

“Wait.” Harry exclaimed but then Louis could hear the fast clicking of his boots behind him. The world around him was spinning and his vision started to blur but now that he had momentum he just needed to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other. The problem was also that the scarf around his neck had other ideas on where it wanted to go. Two things to concentrate on, he could do that. Harry was getting closer and he could not tolerate that. With a loud roar he pushed himself to run faster, one hand clinging to the scarf so it wouldn't fly away. Harry was laughing behind him and together they were probably waking up the whole street. Shit, at the end of the road the street split again. He had about two point three seconds to decide where to go. Apparently his body decided for him which direction to go, and that was down. He turned to his side while falling as Harry grabbed his arm and almost tumbled down with him. Louis landed ungracefully on his bum, his free hand slid across the pavement so he wouldn't fall face first on the ground. Fuck, that hurt! Even through his drunken state he could feel the pain.

 

“Oh my God.” Harry said breathlessly.

“Fuck!” Louis shouted out.

“Shhh!” Harry put a finger in front of his lips, frowning although he was still smiling at him. He let go of Louis arm.

“I hate life.” Louis groaned and let himself fall backwards. Why did he have to run into Harry during the worst day of his life! Ok, maybe not life, but definitely month. Could he please not embarrass himself in front of a cute boy just for once? And could he please not find Harry cute! That would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

“Are you okay?” Harry whispered, bending over with his hands on his knees.

“Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Everything's peachy. Just great.” he said and his words could have probably cut through wood. Harry was silent for a moment, just looking at him while Louis was staring up into the night sky, then he moved and sat down on the ground next to him, crossing his legs.

 

“Do you wanna talk about it?” he asked in a hushed voice and Louis didn't. Not really anyway. But he was still drunk and he had just tripped over his own feet in front of a boy that was completely and utterly out of his league and looking up at the vastness of space like that just made him not care any more.

“It's just ...” he started but then paused and dragged his hand that wasn't all scraped up over his face. “I feel like I've lost myself. Ok, actually, I don't know if I've ever found myself but I just don't know where to go and I'm not doing anything right now but time is pressing on and every second that goes by I get more and more nervous. Normally I'm really good at ignoring it but some days I can't even look at myself without wanting to throw up. And I … I don't know, it's just stupid.”

“It's not stupid.” Harry whispered. But it was, it really was. Because Louis knew that it was only his own fault that he was feeling like that and he could start changing his life at any second, but he just didn't do it.

 

“Do you ever have this dream and you're scared that if you realize it, it will actually be shit, so you just become comfortable with what could have been?” he asked timidly. “Of course not, you actually went through with your dream.” he added, rolling his eyes at himself.

“No, I know what you mean. And I don't think that stuff like that ever has an actual ending because it's just all about taking risks or staying on the secure lane. But I think at the end of the day, you'll be more miserable if you never try it than if you tried and you failed.” Harry's voice was smooth and thick and Louis realized that this was the first time he was actually talking about this out loud.

“I'm just scared of being judged and that is so far from who I am normally, 'cause I couldn't care less what people think of me. I actually like being the centre of attention, just not when it comes to music and that is just so frustrating.” The street around them suddenly got very bright and Louis jumped up at the loud blaring of a horn from a car that drove past them. Right, middle of the road, not the best place to lie down and have an existential crisis.

 

“We should probably go back.” Harry said as he stood up.

“Yeah, you're right.” Louis ruffled up his hair and wrapped the scarf that had come loose around his neck again before standing up.

“You know, it's normal to feel anxious about stuff that comes from deep within yourself but you can't just run around ignoring the screaming of your soul.” Harry was looking at him so intensely, like he just got him, like it was so easy for him to just understand him. It took Louis breath away and the whole pressure just made him want to tear up. He had to take his mind of this. Distraction! ASAP!

“Right now it's screaming for booze.” he sighed exasperatedly and turned around. The problem of the splitting road was still in from of him. “How the fuck is it possible, that I walk around for ten minutes and end up in a part of town I have never seen before?”

Harry giggled. “It's this way.”

 

“And why the fuck do you know where to go?” Louis shook his head but followed him.

“I like taking walks.” Harry shrugged.

“Of course you do.” Louis rolled his eyes but couldn't keep himself from grinning. “I bet you stroll through empty streets at midnight when only the stars are your company and the wind softly blows your hair to one side and the light from the moon touches your skin as light as snow.” Well, that got quite out of hand. He should learn to shut up once in a while.

“Something like that.” Harry said with a shy smile looking at the ground. Shooting himself in the foot would hurt less than getting to see the beauty that is Harry Styles shyly smiling at the ground. He could feel the heat rise in his face and he knew that it definitely wasn't the alcohol's fault. He needed to hook up with someone else really quickly. Preferably someone who didn't have pretty rose lips, chocolate rivers for hair, green eyes and wasn't a bloody movie star. What the hell was his brain even thinking developing a crush on him? Worst. Idea. Ever.

 

“Oh, we're almost there.” Harry said and Louis' head snapped to the street in front of them. Damn, had he really been staring at Harry this whole time? He could see the purple lights from the club and hear the faint rhythmical thumping of the music.

“LOUIS!” Niall and Stan screamed as they came running towards him.

“GUYS!” Louis screamed back and ran to them with open arms. They almost fell to the ground when they crashed into each other and hugged.

“Thank you for bringing our son back.” Niall said to Harry as he got out of Louis embrace, wiping a fake tear away. Louis punched him for that. In return, Stan punched him.

“What the fuck do you think you're doing? I told you I wasn't playing babysitter for your pathetic ass!” he blurted out.

“Your mother and I were worried sick.” Niall cried out and hugged him again.

“Why the hell do I have to be the mother?” Stan complained.

“Because you are the whiny one.” Louis sneered as he tried to push Niall away from him.

 

“I'm not … WHAT THE FUCK?” Guess he had finally recognized Harry. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Making sure he doesn't get run over by a car.” Harry said with a serious face.

“What the hell are you talking about, we both almost died.” Louis frowned, having given up on trying to get Niall away from him.

“Emphasis on the almost.” Harry grinned, effectively ignoring Stan who was staring at him with an open mouth.

“Where did you leave Bressie!” Louis asked Niall before he would drunkenly fall asleep on him.

“We kinda lost him in the club but then he texted me that he was going home with someone so everything is good.” Niall finally let go of him and the cold of the night embraced him instead.

“Because he actually has the common decency to say where he's going, not like certain other people.” Stan narrowed his eyes at him. “But can we get back to the part where a god damn movie star brought you back?” he shouted and pointed at Harry who just smirked at Louis.

“You know, I also have some cool friends, not just Losers like you.” he said and shrugged all casually. He really wasn't making this any better. This had been the first time they had actually talked to each other and he was already calling them friends. Well done, Tomlinson.

 

“I'm in town for a movie and Niall here makes some really good coffee.” Harry told Stan.

“I like you.” Niall exclaimed with the biggest grin Louis had ever seen.

“I feel betrayed.” Louis said in mock shock, bringing a hand to his chest.

“And Louis is also very good at manning the cash register.” Harry added and Louis almost hit him with how fake it had sounded. Stan burst out laughing. He definitely deserved to get hit too. How did Louis end up having such shitty friends.

“Oh please, Louis is bad at everything he does.” Ok, that was too much. Louis jumped him and grabbed his head in a headlock. They landed on the ground and maybe they wrestled a bit too seriously but they were drunk so they couldn't even really hurt each other.

 

“Ok, I think we're gonna go home before they actually starting beating each other up seriously again.” Niall said and pulled Louis up again before slinging an arm around his shoulders.

“Sounds like that happens more often.” Harry noted.

“You wouldn't believe it.” Niall sighed. “Well, thanks for bringing this moron back. We'll see you on Monday then. Your coffee's gonna be on Louis for the rest of the month.” Louis faintly protested but he thought that it would just be appropriate to somehow thank Harry for escorting him. He waved at Harry, shooting him a shy smile and blushed when Harry softly waved back. All the way back to the apartment he had this weird warmth in his stomach mixed with the coldness of anxiety.

 

 

~

 

He woke up the next morning with his tongue feeling like lead in his mouth. Every beat of his heart was like a hammer to his head. He turned around in his bed and snuggled up into the scarf. The moment he breathed it in his eyes shot open. He had actually gone to bed with Harry's scarf still wrapped around his neck. It wasn't that he had just fallen asleep in his clothes, then it would have been halfway acceptable. No, he had taken off his clothes, put on a t-shirt, wrapped the scarf back around his neck and climbed into bed. Having Harry's smell linger around him like that made him wonder what it would be like to wake up besides him. To have those brown curls tickle his bare skin. To plant delicate kisses on his soft lips. Louis grunted. He needed to get up before he started imagining their wedding together. He set up in his bed and rubbed his face with both hands before letting them fall into his lap and looking around in his room, eyes barely able to focus on anything. He took his glasses from the night stand and crawled up the bed until he could lean against the headboard. He idly scrolled through his phone because procrastinating getting up was the best solution to a hangover. He felt like he really, really had to text Stan, just for the hell of it.

 

_[10:43] I feel like my skull is an egg and there's a tiny velociraptor trying to escape it. Where are you ?? I need you to bring me tea to bed !!!!_

 

Maybe he would text him again in two minutes, that would make him feel better. He hoped Stan was still in bed and hadn't muted his phone. He scrolled through Instagram and liked a bunch of pictures. He stared for a while at a picture of Lottie with the baby twins, smiling softly at his phone until he started to miss them to much and had to go back to annoying Stan.

 

_[10:46] I'm cold you need to bring me an extra set of blankets !!_

 

Which was true, he really was starting to get cold, but he was also too lazy to get up and take another blanket out of the cupboard. So he opened up twitter and just scrolled through it for a bit. Then he had the brilliant idea that he could also start annoying Stan from there.

 

**L to the W (@TheTommoWay)**

@Stanley_Lucas You are the worst mother ever, your son is literally dying here and you don't even care! #ImGonnaRunAway #BadParenting

 

He kept on scrolling through twitter, liking a few tweets here and there. He had an itch and he knew what it was about. He tried to ignore it but he wasn't even really looking at his screen any more, just thinking about going to Harry's profile again. Maybe just real quick, it wouldn't mean anything anyway. It didn't look like the guy was tweeting that regularly anyway. After a good ten minutes he caved in and wrote his name into the search bar.

 

**Harry Styles (@HarryStyles)**

And this old world is a new world, And a bold world for me

 

He stared at it for a while, reading it over and over again. It sounded familiar to him, he just wasn't sure about it any more. In the back of his mind he could hear the start of a melody forming, a tune that he had heard a million times, but it just didn't quite want to reveal itself. Exasperatedly he sighed. He would have a half finished melody on the tip of his tongue for the rest of the day.

 

He dragged himself to the bathroom, wrapping his blanket around him. He deemed it too cold in there to take a shower, he wasn't going out anyway, it didn't matter if he stank, but there was no excuse to not brush his teeth. He mentally pushed all the things he had to do to tomorrow's schedule. Maybe he could watch some TV shows today. Catch up on everything he hadn't had time to see yet. But first, breakfast and about two litres of tea. He walked past his key board and came to a halt. He slowly held out a hand to it. He hadn't played in a while, everything had just felt so over whelming. He switched it on and tentatively pressed a note. He winced at the sound and quickly switched it off. Bad idea! His head felt like it could explode any second. He dragged himself to the kitchen and put the kettle on before taking out a bowl and a box of cereal. Before settling down he grabbed an old notebook and a pen. He might not be able to play today but he didn't need his ears to write. As he drank the first sip of his tea he unknowingly hummed a tune.

 

 __It's a new dawn  
It's a new day  
It's a new life  
For me  
  
And I'm feeling good

 

~

 

Louis had the evening shift that week and although his subconscious was sad at the prospect of not seeing Harry he told himself that this was better. He needed time to calm down from this crush he had developed. Niall wasn't working with him tonight. In his place was the human equivalent of a puppy called Liam. The second he had entered the building he had felt Liam's expectant gaze on him and he braced himself for the upcoming avalanche of questions.

“Oh my god, Niall told me what happened on Friday.” he got out with wide eyes and a huge grin. “How the hell did that even happen?”

“The heavens must have sent me an angel to save me from the sinful grasp of alcohol.” Louis said dramatically.

“I have to tell this to Sophia, she's gonna freak out!” he was way too excited about this.

“Liam, please don't use me to get into some girls pants.” Louis leaned against the counter behind the cash register and took the cup of tea he had just made into both hands, keeping an eye on the door.

“I'll also tell her that and then she'll punch you and stop cooking parmesan chicken for you.” Ok, Louis definitely didn't want that to happen. Maybe he needed to spill a little bit more to be on her good side.

 

“He just came in a few times last week and then he probably took pity on me on Friday when I looked like a corpse.” he took a sip from his tea. “I don't know, he's probably just a really nice person. He's a great listener. He didn't run away when I started rambling down my drunk sob story.”

“Niall said you have a crush on him.” Liam grinned.

“I do not!” he cried out. The few customers in the room turned to him and he gave them all cold glares. They should mind their own god damn business.

“Honestly, I think everyone's got at least a little crush on him. I would probably also develop one if I got to see him right in front of me.”

“Liam, half the people around here don't even know who he is.”

“Just because you don't have any cinematographic culture, doesn't mean that everyone else hasn't either.”

“The only reason you know about these movies is because of Sophia. And since when do you even know words like cinematographic?” Louis stopped breathing when he saw the door open and the same black coat come in he had seen three days before.

 

This time he wore black skinny jeans with it and golden boots and Louis would have rolled his eyes at it if he hadn't been mortified. What the hell was he doing here in the evening? Did he want to kill Louis? At least this time he wasn't alone. Next to him stood a man that out-shined any of Bernini's sculptures in beauty and grace. His black hair was slicked back, a cigarette rested carefully behind his ear, his leather jacket looked old but at the same time like it was more expensive that the whole city and at the end of his hand black lines formed and elegant design.

“Oh shit.” Louis muttered.

“Wha?” Liam turned his head, loosing his voice when his eyes settled on the two actors.

 

“Hi.” Harry said from across the room with a huge smile.

“Hi.” Louis tried to smile ignoring the mild panic he felt and put his mug down next to the cash register.

“I hope you aren't feeling too run over.” Harry said and came towards him. Louis could do this, he just had to act normal. Why the hell was he even saying that to himself? He definitely wasn't so far gone that he had to tell himself to calm down. Nope. The boy was just pretty, nothing more.

“Nah, that was nothing, just a casual Friday evening.” he leaned with one hand against the counter, putting the other one on his hip. The two boys came closer until they stood in front of him, Harry grinning stupidly at him while the human piece of art was eyeing their menu board behind him suspiciously. From the corner of his eyes Louis saw the table of college students internally freak out. Three of them were whispering excitedly between each other while the fourth one was staring at them with an open mouth.

 

“Oh my god.” Liam breathed out from next to him, eyes looking like they would pop out any second. Harry's head turned to him and frowned lightly before catching himself and murmuring a polite hello.

“Yeah, Niall isn't in tonight but Payno here makes a mean coffee too.” he could see the slightest blush creep in on Liam's face. “If you like muddy sock water, that is.” Liam's eyes flicked to him and he glared at Louis.

“I hope it's organic sock water from Guatemala though.” Harry tried to keep a straight face but the end of his sentence got swallowed up by his inability to not laugh at his own joke. What an absolute idiot. Louis never wanted to hear anything but his voice ever again.

 

“Hi Harry, hi Zayn, we are so incredibly huge fans, we love you both so much, you are such amazing human beings and amazing actors, would it be possible to get a picture with you?” a high pitched voice rambled down faster than a million miles an hour. The girl had light brown hair pulled up in a very messy bun and an oversized black t-shirt that fell down over one shoulder. She clutched her phone in both hands and Louis wouldn't have been surprised if there were dents in it afterwards. Harry turned to Zayn who nodded almost unnoticeably.

“Sure.” Harry answered with a smile, turning back to the girl. “And thank you so much for your kind words.”

“Oh I'm just telling the truth.” she answered while frantically waving her friends over, not taking her eyes off of Harry and Zayn. The other girl was by her side in a matter of milliseconds, while one of the boys had to almost drag the last one, who looked like he had stopped breathing about five minutes ago, over.

 

“Hello.” Zayn flashed them a perfect smile and the boy that was starting to turn blue in the face let out an audible squee.

“Hi.” Harry chirped in before turning to Louis. “Would you mind?” he gestured to the phone.

“Yeah, no problem.” Louis said and reached out his hand to take the phone.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.” The girl muttered and gave him her phone. They all lined up, Harry and Zayn in the middle. Louis took a step back and took a few shots, making sure that there was at least one where everyone had their eyes open. After he had given the phone back the group fell into an excited conversation but Louis had to actually get back to work and take care of the people who cared more about coffee than about any movie stars. When he turned back to them the group had gone back to their table and Harry and Zayn were talking to each other.

“So, do you finally have time for this mere mortal to take your order?” he asked with a smirk.

 

“Just a black coffee for me again.” Harry said while coming closer to the counter.

“A caramel macchiato for me, please.” Zayn added.

“Ah, finally someone that trusts us with more than just the basics.” Louis joked while punching in the orders separately and taking their money. He could hear Liam shuffle around next to him.

“It's not very convincing when you don't actually drink the product you're advertising yourself.” Harry teased and pointed at his mug.

“Well, my dear friend, I might be around this nonsense of a beverage all the time, that doesn't mean I actually have to drink it.” Louis answered while leaning forward on the counter.

“You don't like coffee?” Zayn asked.

“Not one bit.” Louis grinned. Yeah, it was kind of weird that he had ended up working in a coffee shop with his extreme disdain for coffee but he only had to be able to pretend that he knew what he was talking about, he didn't actually have to know what it tasted like. Liam put the two cups in front of them and stood next to Louis, trying to act casual but actually having the body language of someone who was hiding a corpse behind the counter. Louis thought about messing with him but then decided against it. That boy was already building and aneurysm with the mere presence of Harry and Zayn.

 

“Then why didn't you go work in a tea house instead of a coffee shop?” Harry asked, taking his cup into his hands.

“Do you always go around making people question their life choices or is that just a temporary hobby of yours?” Louis retorted, putting his hands on his hips and raising an eyebrow. It brought out the smallest of smiles in Zayn.

“No, I just meant, since you probably don't know a lot about coffee … you know … “ Harry started out but got flustered. “I didn't mean to insult your life choices.”

“Nah, it's fine.” Louis shrugged with one shoulder. “And anyway, it isn't that bad here. I'm learning new stuff that I would have never learned otherwise.”

“Gaining a new perspective on the world.” Harry murmured and gave him a gentle smile. He would have almost thought that he was mocking him but there was nothing but sincerity in his voice.

“Exactly.” He answered softly and smiled back at Harry. It took the next guy in line to clear his throat for him to snap out of it and realize that they weren't alone. Harry snapped his head around to look at the other guy but his eyes looked like he was ready to say something, but Zayn nudged him with his elbow.

 

“Bye.” He said to Louis and Liam and waved lightly at them, coffee cup in one hand, dragging Harry to the door.

“Good bye, have a nice evening.” Liam answered a bit too enthusiastically. Harry just waved at them with a big grin and almost skipped out the door. Louis wasn't even surprised. Harry might look like a fully grown man but he had the aura of a new born deer.

“Oh my god.” Liam muttered, still staring at the door. Louis had to actually shove him back to his place for him to remember that the customers waiting in line didn't seem as star struck as he was. They had garnered quite a long line and none of them were too pleased with how long it seemed to take them to get orders in. So Louis had to postpone his now routine freak out over Harry Styles. It was frankly getting kind of boring. He definitely needed to find a way to desensitise himself to Harry's face. He wasn't sure that seeing him every day was actually the right way to go, but he didn't seem to have any say in it. He needed to find a way to avoid him. He would ask Esther if he could open a new branch of the coffee shop at the bottom of the sea. He could then actually start selling mud water. He could call it “the little cup of running away to avoid your problems”. At least something he was good at.

 

**Allyson P. (@InfintelyDramatically)**

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OHMY GOD HO YMG OD

 

**Allyson P. (@InfintelyDramatically)**

WE JUST MET HARRY STYLES AND ZAYN MALIK AT THE CUPPA!!!!!!!!

 

**Allyson P. (@InfintelyDramatically)**

I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS, SEB ALMOST DIED, THEY WERE SO PRETTY OH MY GOD WE ACUTALLY TOUCHED THEM!!!

 

**Isaac (@NewtonsHomeboy)**

Shit we just saw Zayn Malik and Harry Styles and Seb's ghost left his body for the whole time rip to the biggest fan boy I know

 

**Allyson P. (@InfinitelyDramatically)**

LOOK WE EVEN GOT A PICTURE WITH THEM!!! @NewtonsHomeboy @CaptainBootilicious @HelenaDosSantos

 

x

 

**Allyson P. (@InfintelyDramatically)**

THEY ARE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I HAVE EVER SEEN AND I AM A ROTTEN TOMATO NEXT TO THEM. I NEVER DESERVED SO MUCH GOOD IN MY LIFE

 

**Isaac (@NewtonsHomeboy)**

@InfinitelyDramatically Jesus, calm down sister. But damn, we look hella fly! Look at that smoulder Zayn's got going on #SebsWetDreams

 

**Harry Styles Updates (@HSUpdates)**

Harry with Zayn Malik and fans at the little cup of home in Doncaster today. Picture via @InfinitelyDramatically

 

x

 

 

~

 

He had effectively avoided thinking about Harry all evening long but now it was almost eleven p.m. And the coffee shop was empty and he didn't have anything left to do. He was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, staring out on the street. The window was almost like a black canvas, framed by the beige wall, and with the incandescent light from the street lamps colouring the rain blue, it looked like a painting. It felt calm and sad at the same time. Like from the inside of the coffee shop everything looked peaceful but you absolutely knew that being outside would be a nightmare. So you rather stayed inside, comfortably, than facing the turbulences of it, even if you would rather have been somewhere else right now. And you just hoped that the weather would change from itself, because it couldn't keep on raining for the rest of your life, right? He wasn't quite sure where Harry fit into all of this. Was he an umbrella or was he the car that soaked you while passing. Or maybe he was just interpreting way too much into this and Harry was just a random person sitting quietly in their room not even noticing the rain. He sighed and let his arms fall to his sides, his head thumping against the wall behind him.

 

“Ok what?” Liam snapped, putting down the wash cloth he had had in his hands. Louis contemplated telling him. He didn't know if he could, not the whole story at least, but maybe getting some of it off his shoulders would do some good.

“How do you stop having a crush on someone?” he asked, still looking at the rain. Liam leaned against the wall next to him, crossing his arms and looking at the ceiling like the answers were written up there. He narrowed his eyes and hummed and Louis loved him for just going with it without asking questions first.

“Probably avoiding them would be a good start.” he finally said.

“Not really an option.” Louis sighed. Liam hummed again.

“I would say get with someone else but that's not really fair to the other person.” he continued. “Maybe, just write down all the all the stuff you hate about them and then just concentrate on that.”

 

Louis just hummed. He really didn't know Harry well enough to know his bad parts. Maybe the way he was too polite and kept on apologizing about stuff. Although that was a good quality to have. There aren't enough genuinely nice people on this planet. Or how all his jokes were horribly bad. On the other hand, the way he said them made them quiet charming.

“You know, sometimes you only realize the person isn't as cool as you thought once you've started hanging out with them more.” Liam proposed.

“My problem is that I don't want to have a crush on someone and your suggestion is to start dating them?” Louis asked incredulously.

“Not date, just, you know, maybe become mates or something.” he tried explaining.

“Liam, you are really shit at this.” Louis turned his head to glare at him.

“Hey, I'm only trying to help, I'm not the one having a crush on a celebrity here.” Liam said.

 

“I do not have a crush on Harry Styles!” he cried out. Ok maybe he had, but he was so not ready to admit that out loud.

“Oh, so who else is that mysterious person you have a crush on?” Liam grinned.

“Just … someone.” he mumbled. That will totally convince him, yes. “Either way, I don't really think hanging out with them would work anyway so I need like an anti-crush spell or something.”

“You know, maybe you only think you can't hang out with him. He seems like a decent chap.” Liam pushed himself away from the wall and went into the stock room while talking. “He seems to like you. I bet he wouldn't have anything against hanging out with you.” He came back wearing his coat and putting on a scarf.

“I hate you.” Louis whispered, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “Look, it must be really hard for him now that everyone has a heart attack every time they see him, so he would probably appreciate it if you would just hang out with him.” he came up to Louis and put a hand on his shoulder. “Anyway, I have to dash. Try not to set the shop on fire.”

“Once I'm friends with him I'll bring him over and then you can embarrass yourself in front of Sophia.” Louis shouted after Liam while he left the shop. “Don't forget to breath next time you see him”

 

Louis leaned back against the wall, pouting, his arms still crossed in front of himself just glaring into the silence. Yeah ok, Liam was right, maybe he was distancing himself too much for nothing and not really seeing Harry as a human being. So Harry had been kind of nice to him. He was probably just searching for friends in a city he was a stranger in, someone that didn't also work with him. Who could blame him? So Louis only had to turn his crush into a friendship. He could do that. Just ignore it until it goes away. Somehow, he knew that that was total bullshit.

 

~

 

It had been four days since Harry had been to the coffee shop and Louis was not worried about it. Why would he? He had also not been checking up on his twitter semi-regularly for any clues. The only new tweet on it had been a retweet for another movie. Either one of his friends or promo. It wasn't really important. But it was Friday now and the scarf had been lying in a little bag in a corner of the stock room for the last few days and he would really like to give it back to him at one point. He even told Niall about it so he could give it back if Harry showed up in the morning. But it was like he had been swallowed whole by the earth. Louis had even hone through the trouble of calling his mother and letting her guide him through the process of properly washing it without destroying it.

 

He had promised Liam and Niall that he would be going golfing with them this Saturday but he couldn't remember why he had actually agreed to it. He hated it, and not just because he was shit at it. It was just boring and tedious and you couldn't let any aggressions out- But Bressie was going too and they needed a fourth man and he kind of took pity on them. It had only been after agreeing to it that he had figured out that you didn't need groups to play golf. Some days, he really hated his friends.

 

He felt like an old man. He wasn't going out at all that weekend. He would just be having a movie night with his cat on Friday, he even planned on actually cooking. What a life!

It was 10 p.m., the streets were dark outside and there were only a handful of people inside the coffee shop. Louis was in he stock room taking out packages from the big delivery cartons and putting them up on the shelves. He had left Liam in the front alone, there weren't that many people coming in anyway. He heard him talking to someone, thought he couldn't make out the words. When he came back to the front he froze up. Liam was leaning against the counter and on the other side of it, with a coffee cup in his hand, stood Harry. He had a green beanie on with a big G on it, his hair messily sticking out of it. He had a big beige winter coat on that looked as comfortable as a cloud, and underneath it he wore a black meshed pullover. Harry's eyes caught Louis the second he came out of the door and a big smile formed on his face.

 

“Hi.” he cheered and Liam turned around.

“Oh there you are.” Liam said. “We were just talking about golf. Did you know that Harry played too? I told him we were planning on going on Saturday. He can join us if he wants, right?” Oh God no, he hadn't just invited Harry along? Louis could see right through those innocent eyes into Liam's raven black soul. He had thought this plan of becoming friends with Harry over and had come to the decision that it was an absolutely stupid plan. Apparently Liam hadn't come to the same conclusion.

“Only if you will have me. I don't want to impose myself.” Harry added.

“No, no, it's fine.” Louis couldn't possibly say no now or he would be branded as an asshole. And Harry's face lit up at his answer so that wasn't really making the situation any better.

“I also told him he could bring Zayn if he wants to.” Liam said, trying to act like he wasn't internally combusting. Wonderful, two celebrities he had to try and act normal around. Louis really needed to do something to stop this kid.

 

“Oh yeah, and sorry I wasn't around lately. We were doing night shoots and I didn't have time to come in.” Harry apologized although Louis didn't know why he felt the need to.

“The shop isn't gonna close just cause you're not here every day. We aren't that close to bankruptcy, you know.” Louis smirked.

“How is it to shoot during the night?” Liam asked excitedly.

“Pretty much the same as during the day, just a lot darker.” Harry answered seriously.

“That is so insightful, Harry.” Louis responded in the same serious tone. “Maybe next time, try putting up some lights.”

“No, that would only ruin the atmosphere. You need a certain mood to really live a scene.” he added and Louis wasn't one hundred percent sure he was joking or not.

“So did you finish earlier tonight?” Liam asked, soaking in every word Harry said.

“Oh they didn't need me tonight. I only went in for some costume fittings.” Harry smiled at him, slowly sipping on his coffee. Liam's eyes went wide.

“Do you have like really old timey clothes? Like old lords had? With these coats that make you look like a fancy penguin and completely buttoned up shirts?” Liam actually looked like a puppy when someone is waving a frisbee in front of it. It was adorable.

“Jesus Liam, this isn't a police investigation. Give him some space.” Louis interjected. “And I'm sure he's tired and wants to go to bed instead of detailing everything out to you.” It wasn't that he wanted Harry to go, but his heart would definitely welcome it. His initial heart attack of seeing him had evolved into it just overworking and beating at twice the speed.

 

“Oh yeah sorry. I don't wanna hold you back.” Liam said apologetically. Harry didn't actually look like he wanted to go. He was looking between the two of them, eyebrows raised with his cup still at his lips. Shit, had Louis just pushed him to leave? Did Harry now this he was rude? Well he was kind of rude but Harry shouldn't think that.

“Oh yeah.” Harry said after swallowing. “I should probably be going now. So, I'll see the both of you tomorrow then, right?”

“We'll meet up at three just in front of it.” Liam pointed out. “Hopefully the weather will be on our side.”

“I heard underwater golf is also really fun.” Harry joked and started going towards the exit. “Bye, see you tomorrow.”

“Bye!” Liam cheered.

 

“Wait!” Louis shouted, his brain apparently deciding to finally join the party. “I still have your scarf.” he ran to the back and got the bag, taking the scarf out of it to give it back to Harry. “I even washed it and everything.”

“Oh.” Harry replied, not looking like he was going to take it. Louis stood there awkwardly, holding the scarf out to Harry who was just staring at it. Louis was almost going to fling it into Harry's face when he finally decided to move and take it.

“Thanks.” he simply said and Louis thought that he looked kind of let down. Shit, had Louis washed it too hot? Had it shrunk without him noticing?

“Do you have a pen?” Harry asked suddenly.

“Sure.” Liam answered and handed him one of those which just lay around on the counter. Harry grabbed Louis still outstretched arm and started scribbling a few numbers on it.

“For tomorrow. So we don't get lost.” He explained and gave Louis a fleeting smile. His skin burned where Harry had touched him. His arm was like amber, the fire slowly making its way to the rest of his body, like it would be completely consuming him if he didn't put it out fast. “Bye.” Harry whispered like it was meant only for Louis and the whole world around them had disappeared.

“Bye.” Louis murmured back, not being able to take his eyes off this boy that shone brighter than the north star.

 

“I would rather believe you being the prince of Egypt than you not having a crush on this boy.” Liam said and he should have honestly shut up and tried to silently escape through the back door because Louis was pissed at him.

“What the fuck, Liam?” Louis yelled and turned towards him, the whole coffee shop probably painfully aware of everything they said. Liam looked shocked at his out burst. “Why the fuck did you have to invite him along? What part of 'I do not want to hang out with him' don't you understand? Why do you constantly have to make my life harder?” With every word he punched Liam on the arm.

“Oh come on, he's totally into you.” Liam said with a smirk, clearly not taking this situation seriously enough.

“Get you head out of your ass, I'm not gonna end up dating a celebrity.” he rolled his eyes at Liam, letting himself fall backwards on the wall with a sigh.

 

What even was he thinking setting him up like that? He had to admit that maybe there was a tiny chance that Harry was actually flirting with him but he probably did that with a lot of people. Why would he even want to go out with Louis? It wasn't like he had a lot to bring to the table. Well he did have a cat, and student loans he probably would still pay off in twenty years, and crippling self-doubt, and an apartment with a leaky shower ten minutes away from his parent's place. Totally the dram package for any newly rich, hot actor.

“Look, it will be fun. I bet they're happy that someone is trying to be their friend. It's probably really weird to have to deal with being famous all of a sudden. Give the lad a break, yeah? Nothing has to come out of it, just promise me you won't be an asshole to him.” Liam looked at him expectantly. Louis nodded reluctantly. He did understand Liam's point but he would still be glaring at him for the rest of the evening.

 

~

 

 

What did you even wear to go golfing? He sure as hell wouldn't be caught dead wearing those ugly beige shorts golfers always seemed to wear. Maybe just normal blue jeans. And a hoodie. Something warm and comfortable. He took out his blue hoodie with the Amsterdam inscription on it and pulled it over his t-shirt. Dave was lounging on his bed like he was the king of the world getting his long hair everywhere where they shouldn't be. He pulled on a normal pair of pants and reluctantly got a pair of socks out of his drawer. He would just be wearing trainers, it didn't matter anyway since he would probably end up being the worst at golf. Maybe he could annoy Niall so much that he fucked up all his shots. At least that would be fun.

 

He hadn't messaged Harry about anything, he had simply copied the number to a piece of paper before taking a shower. That piece of paper was now lying on his desk and would be aggressively ignored. The right thing would have probably been to save it in his phone, but he wasn't too sure about that yet. Maybe if today didn't end up being too bad he could text him. Although he wouldn't have an actual reason to text him then any more.

 

He put on a grey beanie before taking his jacket swinging his backpack over his shoulder and getting out of the house. He had agreed to pick Liam upon his way there. Niall would be driving with Bressie, and he guessed that Harry and Zayn would show up together. It didn't take him long to drive to Liam's place, the traffic being quite nice on a Saturday afternoon. They arrived at the golf club a little late because Louis wasn't that great with time management and maybe he wasn't driving as fast as usual because his stomach was threatening to spill over. He had refused to think about Harry since he had seen him the day before. Out of sight, out of mind. Which had only increased that attack of feelings that had over whelmed him while getting into the car. Laughing at Liam's outfit didn't help that much either. He was actually wearing a polo shirt. It was light blue, tight and horrible.

 

The other's were already standing around talking to each other, a few bags with golf clubs sticking out of them lying around in the middle of their circle. Thank God Zayn also had some common sense and was wearing black jeans and the same leather jacket as earlier. Harry was wearing some loose white pants, a light grey hoodie and his hair in a bun. He actually looked like someone who enjoyed golf. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea, maybe this was really the way how to stop his crush. He would have to thank Liam for it after all.

 

“Hi!” Niall cried out when he saw them from far away and waved excitedly at them.

“Good afternoon.”Liam chirped as they came closer to the group and the rest of them greeted back.

“M'ladies.” Louis said as he curtseyed to them. They all went in together. Niall was actually having a conversation with Harry and Bressie about golf and Liam ran up to them like an overexcited puppy, so Louis just had to stay back a bit. Distance was key. Maybe he would be able to survive this day without looking like he was rudely avoiding Harry. He went up to Zayn who looked as excited to be there as he was.

 

“So, who do you bet will land in one of the ponds first?” he whispered while eyeing the group in front of them.

“My money is on Harry. Two days ago he actually tripped over the border of a carpet and almost fell on the two hundred year old piano the film has on loan.” Zayn answered him in the same low tone.

“Don't underestimate Niall. Last summer he actually broke his hand while playing snooker.” They were coming up to the front building, leaving the parking lot behind them.

¨”Harry actually ripped one of the shirts the costume department gave him because he got tangled up while putting it on.” Louis could hear that Zayn was starting to get a bit competitive.

“The only time Niall was allowed to put anything on the shelves at the coffee shop was when he brought the whole shelf down with him.” He had spend enough time with Niall to have a few of those stories, he hadn't even started with all the shit they did when they were drunk.

 

“Are you challenging me right now?” Zayn smirked at him.

“Whoever gets one of them to fuck up first wins?” Louis raised his eyebrows and smiled. They were going through the entrance of the building. Niall was at the front, going up to the counter to announce their arrival.

“Ok, but to make it interesting, you take care of Harry and I'll take care of Niall.” Louis nodded without realizing what he had just agreed to because the others had stopped and were now looking at them again. This was bad. That did not at all go along with his plan of staying as far away from Harry as possible. Now he had to decide of he was going to let his nerves get in the way of him winning a bet. Maybe if he just saw him as a test subject and not as Harry Styles that would work. Anyway, he wasn't even sure how he would bring him to fuck up.

 

Niall ended up giving him one of his clubs after he almost yelled at him that he didn't care which one it was and that he would use his head instead if he didn't hurry up. He was looking over the field, trying to figure out how he could mess with Harry. This also delayed the moment where he would actually have to interact with him. He hadn't quite mustered up the courage for it. This really wasn't his standard behaviour. What the hell had happened to the original Louis Tomlinson and when had he been replaced with a scared chicken?

“Since we're so many and we have Louis with us I would suggest that we only play twelve holes.” Niall proclaimed.

“Oi, what's your problem?” Louis protested.

“You are legitimately shit at this game and your attention span is shorter than that of a gold fish.” Louis was about to protest again but those were actually valid points.

“Don't forget that I also hate it.” He grinned and leaned on his club.

“I still don't understand why you're here.” Bressie said and shook his head.

 

“Someone has to keep you guys from becoming total old farts.” He shrugged and took his backpack of his shoulder. He reached into it and took a bottle of captain Morgan out and raised his eyebrows suggestively. Bressie rolled his eyes, Liam's mouth dropped open and Niall's face lit up.

“So basically after every hole we drink the amount of shots it took us to put the ball in.” He declared proudly.

“Didn't they say you were really bad at golf?” Harry asked him with an amused little smile on his face.

“Exactly.” Louis exclaimed, still waving the bottle in the air. He could see how Liam was battling with himself internally. Louis had managed to break down his careful side quite successfully and corrupted him into the dark arts of actually having fun.

“Can't we do half the shots? We won't even get to the fifth hole if we do it like that.” Liam argued and Louis smirked. Well, that was easy.

“I will accept that even if I have to let you know, Liam, that you are ruining the whole day for everyone.” He said and already took a sip from the bottle.

“We haven't even started playing.” Bressie noted dead-pan. Zayn came over to him and Louis handed him the bottle.

“You can be happy that I didn't show up here drunk.” Zayn passed the bottle to Niall and in the end even Bressie drank out of it without further protest.

 

Niall passed them all balls and pens so that they could mark them and of course Louis ended up drawing a huge dick on his. Liam went first, actually putting thought into which club he would use. Next up was Bressie and then Harry. If Louis just happened to be looking in the general direction of his ass in the moment he bend over, than that was a complete coincidence. Louis was up next and he tried to swing with a mix of nonchalance and not looking like a complete fool which shouldn't work but somehow his ball neither landed in any sand, water or high grass. It looked like it had landed relatively close to the other balls which made Louis lose some trust in his ball. Had Niall given him a rigged one that made him not suck completely?

“That actually wasn't half bad.” Harry said surprised. Louis squinted at the balls to make sure what he was looking at weren't actually rocks.

“Don't get you hopes up too soon.” Niall smirked and positioned himself to shoot and Louis almost pushed him but he didn't want to end up helping Zayn win the bet. His ball landed magnificently in front of all the others. It was Zayn's turn and he looked as enthusiastic about playing as Louis but ended up being a decent shot.

 

It took Louis only seven shots before his ball was in the whole and he was strangely proud of that. Ok, given, it had only taken Niall three shots but you shouldn't compare yourself to others anyway. Harry had smiled at him all softly when he had punched the air after his ball had rolled into the hole and his heart might have skipped a beat or two. Zayn had done it in eight shots and Louis had given him the honour of drinking first. While they were going to the next course Liam had tried explaining to him that this would be more efficient if he didn't use the same club the whole time. Louis looked at him like he had just tried to explain to him that the world was in fact flat. Niall started this time and Louis hung back with Zayn to whisper to him.

 

“What are we actually betting on?” he leaned over so that the others wouldn't hear him. Zayn hummed as if he was thinking about it.

“If I win you have to come to my house and meet all my little sisters and actually have a tea party with them.” Louis whispered.

“How many do you have?” Zayn asked.

“Four and a toddler one.” he answered.

“Hmmm.” Zayn seemed to consider it for a moment while the others took their shots. “Alright, but if I win you'll have to dress up for a whole day while at work.”

“Dress up as what?” Louis asked.

“I don't know yet. I'll think of something later.” Zayn shrugged.

“It's a deal.” Louis told him and walked up to the front to take his shot. It landed a bit to the side, awfully close to the trees but still on the green. So he had managed to not embarrass himself until now, which was probably gonna change relatively soon with the alcohol. Zayn played better than him this round and he got the urge that he needed to beat him in both challenges. He still hadn't figured out what he wanted to do with Harry, but the booze was starting to kick in just enough for him to come closer to him. They moved down the course to where their balls had landed and Louis ended up standing next to Harry.

 

“So, do you play this a lot?” he asked and wished the alcohol had given him a bit more creativity with the fake courage.

“I wouldn't say a lot, just now and then when I've got time for it.” Harry answered and smiled at him like he was actually happy that Louis had come over and talked to him. “I like it, it's a relaxing game.” he shrugged a little.

“But it's boring. You just stand around a lot and feel pretentious. There's no thrill in it. You don't even really use your muscles.” Louis complained while watching Bressie swing.

“It's more technical. You have to think before you do anything, you know? And it kind of keeps your head calm and it makes you focus on other stuff instead of what is stressing you out in life.” Harry tried to explain but it didn't really convince Louis. It was actually Louis turn now so he reluctantly walked over to his ball and hit it in the general direction of what was hopefully the right flag. It didn't go very far though so after Harry took his swing it was his turn again right away.

 

“ So which sport do you actually like?” Harry came up to him after he had finished.

“Football. I would probably give up half my life for football.” He said without hesitation. Zayn's ball magically rolled into the hole after only three swings and he looked at it like it was a ghost while Niall jumped up and down next to him, cheering like it was his own ball. Louis thought about sabotaging his game for the next hole.

“We could go play football next weekend if you want.” Harry smiled at him all innocently like he didn't know exactly what he was doing to Louis. “I could ask some of my colleagues if they wanted to play with us so that we have whole teams.”

“Oh, so you wanna make it a locals against foreigners match?” Louis smirked.

“Yeah, I think that would be cool for our last weekend here.” Harry answered. Wait, what? Wasn't he meant to film in that house for longer?

“Next weekend is already your last one here?” Louis frowned, trying to not sound desperate.

“Well yeah, I'm going home on the Tuesday after that.” Harry said and went to take his swing. Without really realizing it Louis followed him around.

 

“But doesn't the whole movie play in that house?” Louis asked as Liam came to stand next to him.

“Not all of it. A big part is filmed in the house but then we also have some scenes in a forest and in, like, a city but we can't do those in Doncaster.” Harry talked while swinging and his ball actually ended up a good bit on the other side of the hole.

“What a graceful shot, Harry!” Niall shouted.

“Louis, stop talking to him, you're distracting him.” Zayn joined in with a smirk and Louis shot daggers at him with his eyes. He currently had other things to think about than their bet.

“So yeah, after this we're moving more up north.” Harry said and jogged to the other side to take a shot.

“Are they already leaving soon?” Liam asked him.

“Yeah, in less than two weeks.” Louis answered and he felt this weird kind of pressure that he couldn't describe. This should actually be good news for him since that would effectively take his most prominent problem away from him without needing any action from himself. He had always known that Harry wouldn't be there for long anyway so why did this information shock him so much? He had to figure out what he wanted and that fast.

“Oh, what a bummer.” Liam said and pressed his lips into a thin line. “So we'll have to organise you a plan on how to seduce him in ten days.” he added with a grin.

“If you do that I will reverse it and actually use it to seduce your girlfriend.” Louis said as he walked over to take his own shot. He didn't even know if he wanted to seduce Harry. A bit of fun sure wouldn't hurt anyone but what scared him was that it might end up becoming complicated and there already was enough complicated in his life. Anyway, he wasn't the only one who decided over this. Yeah, Harry smiled a lot at him and was friendly with him but that didn't mean that he was actually interested. He ended up playing this hole in ten shots which didn't bother him too much because he really needed something to drown out his over thinking brain.

 

For the next two holes he tried to keep his distances a bit from Harry and figure this whole emotional situation out a bit more until he thought that, fuck it, he wouldn't find a solution either way and he didn't want to end up drunk and depressed again. This weekend was finally the time for drunk and happy. Or at least halfway cheerful. Zayn was effectively on a mission to charm Niall into trusting him and the drunker they got, the cuter it looked.

 

They crossed paths with a group of older men who disapprovingly glared at them and Liam had to hold Louis back before he would have loudly challenged them to a golf cart race. Niall suggested that they should steal the other groups cart so they could race it themselves and Harry had the brilliant idea that they should collect pine cones from under the trees so that they could use them like in mario kart. They were already on their way over to the trees when Bressie shouted after them that those weren't even pine trees.

“Go over to those old farts” he started telling Harry without really knowing where he was going. “And ask them if you can check out their balls.” Harry looked at him with raised eyebrows and then looked over to the group, pursing his lips. When he started walking over to them Niall laughed up and Louis had to punch him so he wouldn't betray them. Their whole group watched Harry go over to them and it was like they were all collectively holding their breaths.

 

It were three guys, all wearing different shades of beige pants and those awful felt jackets. They looked at Harry when he came up to them like he was walking through an invisible wall that should be impossible to cross. The weird thing though was when their faces started lighting up. One of them even started smiling at him. Was Harry really charming their pants off right now? That wasn't really how Louis had thought this would go. He gasped when one of them erupted in laughter and clapped Harry on the back. Harry clasped his hands together and bowed to them before walking back. He waved his hand to them, trying to conceal his action from the other men, to show them that he held golf balls in them and shrugged his shoulders. Louis looked at him with his mouth open.

“Why did they give you their balls?” Louis asked with a frown.

“I asked if I could see their balls for comparison and told them that theirs seemed way more sleek than ours and then I rolled them around in my hand for a while while humming.” Harry answered with a smirk. Niall basically exploded with laughter and had to like down on the grass so he wouldn't accidentally fall over. Liam held his hand over his mouth so he wouldn’t erupt in laughter too, although you could still see his shoulders shake from it.

“And then they just let you walk away with them?” Louis asked incredulously. “What did you do to these poor men? What did you promise them, Styles?” Louis raised a hand to his chest, pretending he was mortified by what Harry could have done. It made Harry giggle which was definitely something he should be doing more often.

“An actor never reveals their methods.” Harry responded with a huge grin. You could hear Bressie snort in the background, Louis felt how he was rolling his eyes at them. Zayn walked up to Harry and grabbed the balls out of his hand and walked over to where Niall was still lying on the ground.

 

“Shoot them all at the same time.” He said while holding them out to him. Niall looked at him with wide eyes for a few seconds before jumping up and taking them from him. He positioned them all on the group close together. Liam handed him the broadest golf club they had and everyone stared with impatience while Niall positioned himself, comically wiggling his butt and then swung the club. The three balls flew in about the same direction, looking like a bunch of drunk birds before falling down again. One of them landed in the pond, one of them got lost in the high grass and the last one surprisingly landed on the green not that far away from the flag. They all erupted in cheers and Niall jumped into Louis' arms followed up by Liam embarrassing them and before they knew it they were all huddled in a pile like a group of freezing penguins. As they stumbled apart Louis got a glimpse of the other group shooting them dirty looks.

 

“Thank you.” Harry shouted out to them and did the same praying hands bow he already had done before. Bressie pulled him away, although he was grinning. Maybe they should really try to not get thrown out a bit harder. Even if this wasn't the most prestigious establishment around, these things normally prided themselves on being a bit more high level than a bunch of drunk twenty-somethings with running bets. They had already finished the first bottle so now Louis took out a bottle of peach champagne and popped it open. Maybe he was starting to get drunk, but he still knew how to open bottles without spilling their contents.

“Really, flavoured champagne?” Niall looked at him with bemusement. Louis raised his eyebrows in challenge and took a sip. Harry was right next to him, holding out his hand so Louis just passed him the bottle.

“Oi, you're breaking the rules!” Liam complained but it seemed like he was the only one concerned with it since Zayn also came around to drink out of it. The bottle made the round while they all took their first shots, which truthfully didn't land as well as they could have. Louis was pleased with his plan of making this a fun afternoon even if it involved golf. His head was really light at this point and when he closed his eyes he could feel his body slightly swaying.

 

They walked over to where Harry's ball had fallen and Louis just looked at him while he was concentrating. The alcohol made him lose focus on the outside world for a bit and he just observed how the late sun threw shadows on Harry's cheeks from his eyelashes. The light made the green of his eyes the hue of fresh grass in spring. Some strands of his hair had escaped his bun and were now lightly falling down the side of his neck and finding a place to hide in his hoodie. Louis was studying his face, how his mouth was lightly open in concentration, how his eyebrows were slightly pulled together, how his eyes were flicking between the ball and the horizon, and although Louis could feel the cold breeze, he hadn't felt this warm in days.

“You're staring, mate.” Liam whispered into his ear and snapped him out of it.

“Shut up.” Louis growled, which didn't keep Liam from smirking. Louis used his club to make sure the next generation of humans wouldn't have to deal with their own version of Liam Payne. Ok, at least he tried because Liam caught it mid air, yanked it out of his hands and held it above his head which was frankly just plain rude.

 

Louis ran to where Liam had put down his bag and snatched a few golf clubs from it, hopefully he also had some expensive ones. Liam was running after him, trying to capture him but even if drunk, Louis was still a pretty fast runner. He ran up to Harry who looked at them confused.

“Catch!” he yelled while throwing him one of the clubs and the continued his path down the green.

“Run, Harold!” he called out and he wasn't sure if Harry had really understood what was going on but at least he also started running. Louis came up to one of the balls and put one of the two clubs he still had in his hands under his arm and swung with the other club without really focusing. He wasn't even sure whose ball it was.

“Louis!” he could hear Liam shout after him. He ran away to the next ball, seeing in the corner of his eyes that Harry was standing at the other side of the the course staring at him like he didn't know what to do.

“Shoot the balls!” He screamed over to him.

“Someone get Harry.” Liam shouted while Louis took his second swing. Liam was catching up so Louis just threw the second golf club in his direction and ran away again. He was so proud when he saw Harry take a quick shot before running away from Bressie. Harry of course had no chance and about five seconds later he got body slammed to the ground. Maybe Louis should have mentioned that Bressie played rugby.

 

“Hey!” Someone shouted and Louis turned around just to see two security guards come up to them. Liam stopped and turned around to them, which only gave Louis the opportunity to run away further from him. Niall and Zayn had stayed close to their golf cart and the guards were coming alarmingly close to them. In the blink of an eye Niall grabbed Zayn by the arm, stuffed him into the cart and drove it unto the green. You could only hear Zayn's screams as he tried to hold on tight and Niall's maniacal laughter. The security guards chased after them, talking into their walkie talkies certainly to rat them out. Louis took the opportunity that Liam and Bressie were distracted by the guards to run over to Harry, who was still lying on the ground.

“Get up!” he told him, dragging him up by his arm and ran towards the small patch of trees to their right.

“Shit. Louis!” Bressie called after them, not sure if he should address the problem of the security guard or of them running away first. He hadn't really thought his plan through because that wasn't exactly a forest they were running towards, there wasn't really a place they could hide. Maybe they could climb up one of the trees and then just live as squirrels for the rest of their days. They could still hear Niall and Zayn scream laughing in the distance. Louis wouldn't be surprised if they ended up in a sand bunker or a pond. They got to the trees ad slowed down.

 

“Oh god” Harry murmured. Louis looked around but he could practically see the ends of the strip of trees on all corners.

“Stop panicking, Styles.” Louis hissed and only now realised that they were actually holding hands. His heart felt like it would jump out of his chest so he just dragged Harry to what seemed like the middle of the island, pushed him against a tree and put a finger in front of his own mouth to signal him that he should shut up. Of course Harry started to giggle though, because Louis was almost pressed against him and it felt like they were running away from the police when they were actually just drunk hiding between a dozen of trees in the middle of a golf course with possibly more than two security guards knowing exactly where they were. Louis couldn't stop himself from grinning because how the hell had this day ended up being so crazy. Harry held his own hand over his mouth now because he seemed seconds away from erupting into laughter. They froze up when they heard footsteps coming closer, staring into each others wide open eyes, Louis hand still on Harry's wrist.

 

“Guys, come on! Just make it easy for everyone, you can't really go anywhere.” One of the security guards shouted and Harry actually snorted out loud which only made Louis put his own hand over Harry's hand that was still over his mouth. They heard some shuffling before the person stopped again.

“I can actually see your feet.” He told them and Louis eyes shot wide open. In one motion Harry swirled them around, pushing Louis against the tree before getting out from behind it.

“No!” Louis whispered and tried to hold him back but Harry just shrugged him off.

“Hello.” Harry beamed at the security guard. “I think there has been a misunderstanding. We are merely just searching for our lost balls in here. Maybe you would like to join us.” The way he said it sounded awfully like he was inviting him for something more, keeping a straight face throughout the whole of it. Louis didn't know how he was doing it but the again, he was a professional actor.

“Tell him they are blue.” Louis whispered which finally broke Harry's serious front.

“Stop playing, boys, and just come with me.” The guard sighed. “I've still got other stuff to do today.” Louis weighed the pros and cons of keeping this going. He wanted to know how much he could irritate this guard but on the other hand he didn't want the actual police to get involved. Especially not since Harry was famous and that would probably find it's way into the press.

“We're terribly sorry, officer.” Harry said with an innocent smile, putting his hands together again. “Apparently we got a bit out of hand. But I have to tell you Sir, you have a very lovely golf course.”

“Look, you're not going to get out of this by sweet talking me. Just come along and we'll deal with this in the office.” He said, relatively calm. Louis was astonished that they weren't actually getting yelled at.

 

He pushed himself away from the tree and stood besides Harry, arms crossed, not looking the guard in the eyes. The guard waved his arm towards where they had come from, signalling them that they should get going. They walked back to the beginning of the field where Liam and Bressie were standing next to all of their stuff, a guard next to them. Louis and Harry walked over to them and the closer they got the more they could see their eyes trying to decapitate them from afar. Louis couldn't keep himself from grinning at them. He was just a little bit proud of how he had managed to completely turn this whole day around. They got huddled up into a group, no one saying a word although Harry and Louis almost burst out laughing every time they looked at each other. After a while they saw a golf cart come their way, another guard driving it with Niall and Zayn in the back. Niall was turned towards them, giving them the biggest shit eating grin ever. Harry was biting his lips, looking at the ground, trying to look at least a little bit remorseful. Louis couldn't be bothered with it.

 

Ten minutes later they were all sitting in the head chief's office, listening to him ramble down all the offences they had committed. Well, Louis wasn't really listening to it. He didn't care either way. They weren't really allowed to come back there any more, which Louis saw as a wing. They hadn't broken anything so they couldn't make them pay for anything. Louis was used to people trying to make him feel guilty about what he had done, his whole school career had consisted of it, but somehow it never really reached him. He had too much fun to feel bad about it. Liam and Bressie argued with the guard, with Harry occasionally blurting out a comment, more to stir shit up than to help.

“We can't keep you guys here, so we'll have to ask you to leave and just not come back again, ok?” The head guard said and they all nodded along.

“We're all really, really sorry.” Liam tried to apologize but the guard just gave him a look like he didn't believe him for one second. They all got ushered out of the office then, trying to act like the world wasn't spinning around them. Astonishingly they hadn't taken Louis back pack with the whole alcohol bottles in it away. Guess they didn't care if they were drunk, they just shouldn't be doing it there.

 

“Excuse me.” A younger guard came up to them when they stood outside the building. “Hi, Harry, I'm sorry, this is maybe a bit unprofessional, but my sister is a huge fan of yours, so could you just say hello to her maybe?” he asked, pretty much ignoring the rest of the group.

“Yes, sure.” Harry answered all chipper like they hadn't just been kicked out by this guy's employer. “What's her name?”

“Riley!” The guy answered with a huge smile, scrambling to get his phone out and point it at Harry. He gave him a small nod to indicated that he was filming. Louis wasn't too certain that this was a good idea, given their general state.

 

“Hello Riley. This is Harry Styles. I hope you are having a wonderful day and week. Please remember to always do what the grown ups tell you and do not abuse any mind-altering substances.” Louis couldn't keep himself from snorting at that, which only made Harry smile wider. It would be a miracle if n one picked up that Harry was at least a little drunk. “Always follow your dreams and work hard for what you want to achieve. What other's think about you shouldn't matter if it comes to anything that is done with your soul. Find your passion and stick with it because that is the only way to achieve happiness. And most importantly, I believe in you, Riley. No matter what your goals are, I believe in you. Have a lovely day, Riley.” He finished with his praying hands bow he had already done about ten times that day, like that was the only way he knew how to move.

“Thank you so much.” The guy said, lowering his phone. “Do you think we could also take a picture together? I promise that will be the last I ask of you.” he chuckled nervously.

“Yes, no problem!” Harry agreed to it, probably way too complaisant for his own good. Louis wondered how his life normally was if already in a relatively small city like Doncaster everyone asked for his attention.

 

“Could you maybe take it?” The guard turned towards Liam, finally acknowledging that there were also other people around. Louis was starting to get a bit restless so when he was sure that Liam had taken a few pictures he yelled. “Group pic!” and huddled in close to the other two, dragging Zayn in with him. It didn't take a heartbeat and Niall was pushing Bressie into the shot too. He squatted down like he was about to spit some sick rhymes and he hoped the others were doing the same cause it would look so much more hilarious in their golf attire. Liam looked confused for a second but then took the picture. Louis almost fell over while trying to get up again. Apparently squatting while drunk wasn't the best idea.

“Thank you.” The guard told Harry, shooting Louis daggers when Harry wasn't watching. Louis gave him his most innocent smile.

“You are very welcome.” Harry answered and shook the guys hand.

“Have a lovely day.” He said and went back inside. Louis kinda hoped someone had seen it so that they wouldn't be the only ones getting yelled at today.

 

“Guys? How do we get home?” Niall asked and everyone turned to him. “It's not like we can still drive.” Oh yeah, right, they had gotten here with their own cars. Maybe they should have thought about designating a driver beforehand.

“Hmmm” Liam hummed, looking around like he was searching for something. “Maybe a bus.” He said under his breath.

“There's one every three hours or something.” Louis shook his head although what he really wanted to say was that he really hated buses. And it was probably not the best idea to put two drunk celebrities into a crowded, public transport anyway.

“We could just walk.” Niall suggested.

“I'm not gonna walk ten miles to the hotel.” Zayn interjected.

“I wouldn't mind.” Harry added calmly.

“Yes but you are an old man who likes to take walks.” Louis rolled his eyes at him.

“I'm calling a cab.” Bressie said, visibly irritated by all of them.

“Huh.” Louis said astonished. “Didn't think about that. And that's why you are the oldest one.” He grinned at Bressie who was looking at him like he would probably strangle him once he had finished his phone call.

 

~

 

They stumbled into the cab about fifteen minutes later. Harry, Louis and Niall giggling in the back, Zayn and Liam in the two seats in front of them while Bressie was sitting next to the driver telling him where to go. Louis was sitting in the middle, with Niall to his right and Harry to his left. He wasn't even listening to the story Niall was telling because every time Harry laughed his whole body would shake and rub against Louis leg. He felt like he could shatter like glass with those vibrations. Bressie was the first to get out, making sure the cab driver had all the right addresses because, to quote him, he “didn't trust any of those god damned children”. Louis was starting to not feel so good any more. Maybe cracking open that bottle of whiskey before the cab arrived hadn't been the best idea. He really needed something to eat and drink a whole bucket of water. Standing under the shower with his mouth open might do the trick too.

 

“You ok?” Harry leaned in and whispered in his ear, his knuckles lightly grazing Louis leg.

“Yeah, I'm fine.” He swallowed. “Car rides just mess with my stomach.” Harry's face was so close to his that he could see the inner golden circle of his irises. Harry blinked slowly and Louis couldn't help himself from biting his lips which only resulted in Harry's eyes darting between his mouth and his eyes.

“Ok.” Harry breathed out, the back of his index finger lightly caressing down Louis' thigh. His heart couldn't decide if it wanted to beat at double the rhythm or if it wanted to stop completely. He wished he could say that Harry smelled amazingly but, honestly, everything just reeked of booze. He really had to look away before he would puke on Harry's lap. He turned his head towards the front, looking out into the road and concentrating on just breathing, deeply and slowly. After a while Harry leaned away, turning his head to look out of the window, although his hand seemed to linger near Louis' leg. Without really noticing it Louis own hand inched closer to it, not really touching it but he could feel the heat from it. When the car drove over bumps in the road their fingers grazed each other and Louis thought that maybe some of those touches were more deliberate than it might seem.

 

When Niall got out of the car he started to get nervous. He took the hand that was burning up next to Harry's and drove it through his hair, ruffling it up a bit before clasping both his hand in his lap. No one was talking any more and even with the music on the silence was deafening. With every passing second Louis grew more impatient to finally drive up to his apartment building. This stress also didn't help his stomach, his fingers starting to get ice cold as the back of his neck was growing warmer and warmer. Every time Harry moved in his seat and brushed against him it send sparks through his body. Finally the car stopped and Louis almost fell out of the car, shouting “Bye!” on his way out. He leaned over the open passenger side window to pass the driver his share of the fare before it drove away. Finally he was able to take a deep breath, the fresh air filling his lungs and slowly washing away this feeling of nervousness. He closed his eyes, feeling like his contact lenses were burning through his eyelids. He sighed before turning around and heading upstairs.

 

The first thing that he did was take out his lenses and put on his glasses. Then he went and put on some comfy joggers before getting a bag of crisps and a bottle of coke and lying down on his couch. Not two seconds later Dave was lying on him, purring into his face. He pulled the blanket over the both of them, exactly knowing that Dave loved it when it felt like he was in a cave. Truthfully, if he had ever known happiness in his life, then this fuzzy ball of warmth was probably it.

 

He switched the TV on, more as a background noise than as anything else. He didn't know what to do with his feelings. By now he was pretty certain that Harry was at least a little interested in him. And also that he was somehow interested in Harry. Probably more than just a bit. He just didn't know how this could work out. He knew that Harry wouldn't move to Doncaster for him, but would he move to London for Harry? Wasn't it a bit crazy to already think about that? He didn't even really know the guy and he wouldn't ever get the chance to know him if he was only staying here for another two weeks. What he did know was that he really, really wanted to know what his lips tasted like. In that moment he would have probably gotten up to get the paper with Harry's phone number if Dave hadn't been lying on him, which was undoubtedly a good thing. He kind of didn't want to mess up his chances by drunk texting him. These things needed time and a clear head.

He took out his phone anyway, opening up twitter.

 

**L to the W (@TheTommoWay)**

Life goal achieved! I managed to get us kicked out of the golf course!!!

 

After that he went to Harry's profile but of course there wasn't anything new on it. How could there be? He probably wasn't even home yet. For a second he thought about tweeting him but Harry probably wouldn't even see it. And then he thought about activating tweet notifications for him but that was kind of weird for someone you knew in real like but wasn't exactly friend with.

 

 

**Stan Lucas (@Stanley_Lucas)**

@TheTommoWay Do I even wanna know the story behind this?

 

**L to the W (@TheTommoWay)**

@Stanley_Lucas See what you miss when you leave me ?? You could have the time of your life here, mate

 

**Niall (@NiallerOfficial)**

@TheTommoWay @Stanley_Lucas He makes it sound like some elaborate plan but he literally just got us all drunk

 

**L to the W (@TheTommoWay)**

@NiallerOfficial @Stanley_Lucas Shut up no one asked you

 

He wondered if he could find the picture of them at the golf club somewhere. Maybe someone had already put it up. It would definitely be a nice thing to have. At least people would believe him then if he told them he got two movie stars drunk at a golf club. He put in Harry's name in the search bar, not going to his account this time but going to his mentions page. He didn't have to scroll for long until he found an account that was probably the guard's sister.

 

**R I L E Y (@darlingriley)**

OH MY GOD MY BROTHER MET @HarryStyles AND @ZaynMalik AT THE GOLF CLUB TODAY

x x

 

**Delilah (@flowercrownHarry)**

Who are those other people????

 

**R I L E Y (@darlingriley)**

@flowercrownHarry I don't know, probably their friends. I couldn't talk to my brother, he's still at work

 

**F R A N (@FrancescaHernandes)**

@darlingriley OMG RILEY!!!! Shit why didn't I pay more attention to Cole before??

 

**R I L E Y (@darlingriley)**

@FrancescaHernandes HE GOT A VIDEO OF HARRY FOR ME!! HE HAS BEEN PROMOTED TO FAVORITE FAMILY MEMBER! BYE MUM

x

 

**F R A N (@FrancescaHernandes)**

@darlingriley NOOOO OH MY GOD THAT IS SO CUTE!! HE'S SO ADORABLE

 

**F R A N (@FrancescaHernandes)**

@darlingriley But good advice, I guess

 

**R I L E Y (@darlingriley)**

@FrancescaHernandes I know he's so cute!!! But WTH is he going on about? Welp, guess I'll go to Uni and won't become a drug dealer, what a shame

 

**F R A N (@FrancescaHernandes)**

@darlingriley Hey if that's your dream than go for it. He honestly looks a bit drunk ;D

 

**R I L E Y (@darlingriley)**

@FrancescaHernandes I can't blame him, he's in a golf club ;)

 

**Harry Styles Updates (@HSUpdates)**

Harry with @darlingriley 's brother, Zayn Malik and a few friends at the Warren Golf course outside of Doncaster

x x

 

**Harry Styles Updates (@HSUpdates)**

Harry's message for @darlingriley today

x

 

**Harry's left butt cheek (@SugarbuttStyles)**

@HSUpdates Do you know who the other people in the picture are?

 

**Harry Styles Updates (@HSUpdates)**

@SugarbuttStyles No, they aren't any of his known friends, maybe they are local friends =)

 

Louis saved the picture of them all to his phone. He debated over putting it as his background image but there was currently a very cute image of Doris hugging Dave on it and he wasn't ready to not see it every day. He would have to crop it any way and there really wasn't a part of that picture that wasn't golden. The guard looked really confused, Harry had turned sideways and had his arms crossed, Louis was crouching in front of him doing something weird with his arms, Zayn just stood there looking naturally cool, Niall was crouching next to Louis with his eyes closed and hand clasped together as if he was praying and Bressie was kind of looking up to the sky and pointing in that direction with both hands like they do for American football. He really had to get that picture printed out.

 

~

 

He had spend his Sunday with his family, cleaning his house, and trying to decide if he should text Harry or not. He already knew that he wanted to, now he only needed to find the courage for it. He had even written down a list of why he should and shouldn't do it. He got so frustrated that he had started writing a song about what a coward he was, more out of fun than anything else. But then he had looked at the clock and it was ten p.m. and he had been working on it for the last four hours and maybe it wasn't as bad as initially thought. It just needed a bit of fine tuning and it might actually be a passable song.

 

He stood up from his kitchen and walked over to his bedroom, picking up Dave on the way there and swinging him over his shoulder. It honestly sometimes felt more like he had a bag of flour as a pet than an actual cat. A purring bag of flour that is. He entered his bedroom, the piece of paper with Harry's number on it lying on the table next to the door. He stopped in front of it and sighed. He was getting more and more angry with himself about his inability to act. He was a grown man, he should be able to deal with texting his crush. Dave meowed in a low tone next to his ear and it might have sounded a bit judgemental. Who did that cat think he was?

 

He picked up the piece of paper with a frustrated growl and sat down on his bed, leaning against the headboard and pushing his naked feet under the blanket. Dave slid off his shoulder and nudged his way under the blanket, curling up in the cave his angled up legs created. So the first part was easy. He just had to type in the phone number and save it. He saved it under Harry, keeping it short and simple. Luckily he didn't know any other people with the same name. Now came the difficult part. He opened up the text message program and at first stared at it for a few seconds. Of course the words didn't form themselves on their own, no matter how much he wished for it. There were about a thousand possibilities of things he could write and none of them seemed to be any good. He should probably just do it like with a band-aid.

 

**[20:23] Hi**

 

He stared at it for a while and panicked because he had already fucked up. That was way too short and generic.

 

**[20:23] It's Louis.**

 

That wasn't really any better. Damn, when had he become this shit at texting. He sounded like a robot. He put the phone down before he would start typing up which exact Louis he is and that was honestly just a really embarrassing move. The sound of his heartbeat over shadowed the noises from the street outside and he wasn't sure if he had breathed out in the past three minutes. His heart stopped the exact second his phone lit up again.

 

_[20:27] Oh Hi! How are you doing?_

 

**[20:28] Astonishingly good, got to spend the whole day with family. How are you? Did you survive yesterday?**

 

God he hated these first text exchanges. Everyone always sounded so polite and you didn't know the other person's acceptance threshold for insults yet. He reread his own lines and felt so pretentious.

 

_[20:30] Barely. But we didn't shoot today and they have a spa at the hotel so I just spend most of the day there._

 

**[20:31] Oh God, please tell me you didn't do a detox cure?? Jesus you would fit so well into LA. All posh like that.**

 

_[20:33] I have to maintain a certain vanity level or else I won't be accepted into the ranks of the Hollywood high society to finally become a fully fledged, professional actor which has always been my ultimate dream_

 

**[20:34] Yeah ok, I shouldn't have said that, I'm sorry, I might have been a bit drunk back then**

 

_[20:35] A bit …_

_[20:35] It's fine though. It's basically what my agent has been telling me too. It's just a big step and I guess I'm kind of scared of the change._

 

**[20:36] You're still young, you don't have to do it right away if you don't feel like it, you know. And I think it's easy to get lost there if you aren't prepared for it.**

 

_[20:36] Thanks. It's just that right now people know me and I might miss my opportunity if I don't go_

 

**[20:37] Yeah but what kind of a chance is that even? If you like it better how films are done here then why go over there and be miserable? What would it bring you to be famous in Hollywood when you hate what you're doing?**

 

_[20:39] My agent definitely won't be happy that you're giving me this advice._

 

**[20:40] Why are you even accepting the advice of a guy who hasn't even shown his own mother any song he has ever written**

 

_[20:41] Because that person should probably take his own advice and would probably find that people would certainly be enchanted with his music and that he can just start with small steps and show it to someone he trusts that would not sugar coat it but give him actual critic._

 

**[20:42] Yeah well that's easier said than done. But why are we talking about me? Let's get back to you! Tell your agent he can fuck off and that you will become the hottest London actor around !!!**

 

_[20:43] I don't think that telling my agent to fuck off is such a brilliant idea … Since he has the ability to ruin my career and all that._

 

**[20:44] No, no, you don't need that kind of negativity in your life. You can just charm the pants off of anyone you want to work with. Hey, you charmed those old guys into giving you their balls. That is some serious talent !!!**

 

_[20:44] So you're telling me to go rogue and become my own agent?_

 

**[20:45] Well, you don't have to become your own agent, just find a better one before the old one kicks you out.**

 

_[20:46] So basically go behind his back, possibly also gather some information about him so he won't open his mouth once I'm gone, and leave him behind while I go and become the most successful indie actor of all time?_

 

**[20:47] Exactly!! See, problem solved, now you have your life plan for the next five years. This was so much cheaper than any shrink.**

 

_[20:48] So are we going to put up a five-year plan for you too?_

 

**[20:49] Would you look at the time! Jeez it's already so late, I should definitely be heading to bed! Good night Harry !!!!**

 

_[20:50] Why don't I believe you …_

_[20:50] Oh, by the way, I still have your backpack._

 

**[20:50] What?**

 

_[20:51] The backpack full of booze. You left it in the cab and I only noticed when I got out._

 

**[20:51] Ah shit I hadn't even noticed!! Thanks! Can you bring it round to the coffee shop tomorrow?**

 

_[20:52] When do you work?_

 

**[20:52] I've got mornings again, so I'll be in till half past 2.**

 

_[20:53] I'll only have time in the evening, but I could come around to your place to drop it of around 7 or 8_

_[20:53] If that is ok with you?_

 

**[20:54] Yeah sure, I don't have anything planned either way so just come over whenever you want.**

 

_[20:54] Perfect, I'll let you know when I'm on my way._

 

Oh God what had he done? So Harry was coming over to his place in less than twenty four hours. He had less than twenty four hours to make his apartment look anything but what it currently was, a complete chaos. It was easy to lose track of how messy a place was if you lived there alone and the only people that came over knew how utterly disorganised you were. He jumped out of his bed, startling Dave awake. His living room looked like fifty toddlers had been let loose at once with the added bonus of having cat hair on everything. He didn't even know if he had enough shelves to put all his stuff on. Maybe he could push everything in a corner and put a blanket over it. The floor of his entrance hall resembled a sea made of shoes. How he managed to not trip over them every single day was probably the question of the century. His kitchen looked astonishingly clean, but then again it was also the space he write his songs in and it was just easier to be creative when there weren't piles of dishes passive aggressively sitting there and judging you that you hadn't cleared them yet. His bedroom of course was on a completely different level. He didn't even know why he owned a wardrobe since there hadn't been a single piece of clothing in it for the past year or so. At one point heh ad bought shelves he had wanted to put up over his bed to put books on but now that he was thinking about it they were still in the boxes and the books were just piling up next to his bed. There was a corner of his room that was full of empty water bottles. He could probably build a small city out of them.

 

So now he had to decide where he would start and which rooms he would clean. It felt a little weird to also clean his bedroom. He wasn't hoping for Harry to enter the room anyway but you never knew what would happen. Maybe a fire would break out in the living room and their only possibility of escape was his bedroom. Anyway, it would do the apartment a little good if he finally got around to clean it. Maybe he would finally be able to see the colour of his floors again.

 

~

 

Since he had woken up, he had had this constant tight knot in his gut that ha prevented him from eating anything at lunch, which was probably the reason his stomach was rumbling so hard right now that it had woken up Dave. His leg had been constantly bouncing up and down and he had wondered if he could consider it as doing exercise. Logically it would train his muscles, right? He had cleaned up the rest of the apartment when he had gotten back and it didn't really feel like home any more. Even Dave looked a bit confused that he could walk around freely without having to cross an obstacle course.

 

It was half past six, so Harry would only be coming over in at least half an hour. He should probably eat before that. He didn't want to end up fainting the second he opened the door, that would totally send over the wrong signals. He got up and turned the oven on. He didn't trust himself with any knives right now so cooking wasn't an option. Pizza would have to do . It wasn't like he was gonna complain about having to eat Pizza anyway.

 

He was running around bare foot, with dark grey joggers, his light grey “British rogue” hoodie and a midnight blue beanie. It was a bit strange to walk around with a beanie inside but the outfit felt like a warm hug and he really needed that at the moment. He would end up changing into something else before seven p.m. anyway. He leaned against the kitchen counter waiting for the oven to heat up, breathing in slowly to try and calm himself down.

 

He jumped up when he heard the doorbell. For a second he just stared at the general direction of the front door, asking himself if he had somehow lost half and hour of his life without noticing it. He checked his phone but it still said 18:37 and there was not text from Harry. So maybe this wasn't him after all. He walked over to the door and pushed the talk button on the intercom.

“Hello?” he asked carefully.

“Hi, it's Harry. I'm sorry I'm turning up out of the blue like this but someone dropped me off on my way back.” It echoed out of the speakers.

“Oh, yeah, no problem, come up. It's on the second floor.” He pushed the button to open the door for a few seconds. Ok so his plan was pretty much fucked. He took a deep breath before opening his apartment door. He could hear footsteps coming up the stairs. The second the lights to his floor went on his heart beat to the rhythm of the jumanji game, getting louder and louder the closer Harry got. Louis tried to swallow but his tongue was glued to the inside of his mouth. He had to actually remind himself to smile or else he would have probably looked at Harry like he was looking his murderer in the eyes.

 

Harry looked up at him and smiled like a kid on Christmas while coming up the last few steps, which really didn't help Louis' general state of being. He was wearing black leather pants which pretty much were the signature on Louis' death certificate. He caught himself developing a plan on how to stand behind Harry while he was walking up stairs in hose pants. He was also slightly disgusted with himself and his lack of self control. Harry was wearing a black harley davidson t-shirt and a dark navy blue longcoat with the curls of his hair looking extremely curly today. He held Louis backpack in one hand by its straps.

“Hi” he cheered when he got to the top of the stairs.

“Hi” Louis answered, maybe a bit too cheerful to mask his nervousness. “How are you?”

“I'm fine, thanks. How are you?” he still smiled at him.

“Yeah, same.” Louis stared at Harry like he was the huge, mysterious lights and Louis was just an insignificant forest animal. It took him a while before remembering to be polite. “Come in.” he stepped aside to let Harry pass.

“Thanks.” Harry mumbled and entered carefully into the entrance hall. Louis closed the door and leaned against it, pressing his lips together. Harry kind of looked around a bit before turning around and looking at Louis. He seemed a bit nervous as well and thank God for that. He was probably way better at hiding it than Louis though, so he didn't even wanna know what he himself looked like right now.

 

“Uhm.” Harry said after a while of just weirdly staring at each other. “Your backpack.” he held it out on front of himself and Louis eyes shot to it.

“Oh yeah, thanks.” He pushed himself away from the door and took it. At first he held it in his hands but then thought that that was a bit weird and just put it down on the ground next to them. He crossed his arms in front of himself. Harry had done what he had come over for so there wasn't really a reason for him to stay, although he wasn't really making the impression that he was about to leave.

“Ehm, I was about to make pizza, do you maybe wanna join in?” Louis asked shyly.

“Sure.” Harry answered in a low voice. He had both his hands in the back pockets of his pants, smiling lightly at Louis with his head angled down a bit. Louis smiled back, feeling the heat rise in his cheeks so he decided that it was absolutely the time to check on the oven and walked past Harry into the kitchen.

“So I've got pepperoni, the kind with mushrooms on it, pesto and just regular mozzarella ones.” He said while walking over to the freezer.

“Mushroom's fine.” Harry answered while following him like a lost duckling. He still had his coat on and he honestly looked a bit out of place.

“Oh you can put your coat on the coat-hanger in the hallway. If there isn't any space left just put it over something else. And you don't have to take your shoes off, it's up to you, I just like running around without 'em.” Louis explained while taking the pizzas out of their boxes and putting them on trays. Harry shuffled back to the other room while Louis put the pizzas in the over and turned the timer to ring in ten minutes. Harry came back in just a t-shirt and no shoes. His socks were black with little white anchors on it which was just incredibly adorable that he liked anchors so much that he had to put them on his feet and ink it into his skin.

 

“If you're cold I can go and get you a sweater.” Louis stated concerned.

“No it's fine.” Harry said but Louis knew how cold his apartment was, especially when they were so close to winter starting.

“I'll just go and grab you one, I don't want you to freeze here.” Louis mumbled and was out of the kitchen before Harry could protest. He looked through his wardrobe for one that was maybe a bit too big on him and wouldn't make Harry look like an overgrown baby. He found a black Green Day one he had gotten at a concert venue a few years ago. Thank God for huge band merch.

 

“Here.” Louis handed it to Harry on his way back to check on the pizzas.

“Thanks, but it was really not necessary.” Harry answered but still put it on. Louis just shrugged. He turned around where he heard a small purring noise, seeing Dave stand in the doorway and stretch.

“Oh, is that your cat?” Harry asked and his face lit up like the sun.

“Yeah, that's Dave.” Louis answered and leaned back against the counter.

“Dave?” Harry repeated, looking at Louis with sparkles in his eyes.

“Mhm.” Louis nodded and couldn't keep himself from smiling at how cute Harry was.

“Can I pick him up?” He asked when Dave came up to smell his feet and rub his face against them. Clearly everything that was in this apartment belonged to him and should also be marked as such, no matter if that thing would stay there or not.

“Yeah, sure, he's just a lazy baby, you can pretty much do as you please with him.” Louis shrugged.

“Hi” Harry whispered as he picked Dave up, cradling him like a baby. “How are you doing?” he continued in the softest voice while Dave happily purred and slowly blinked up at him. “It's really nice to meet you, Dave.” he swayed his body lightly from side to side. Louis had never been more certain about anything in his life than about the fact that he really wanted to kiss Harry. Dave put one of his paws up and let it rest on Harry's face.

“Well thank you very much.” Harry stated and Dave meowed quietly at him, which only led to Louis bursting out in giggles and Harry turning around to look at him and smile. The timer finally went off then so Louis turned around to take the pizzas out and put them on plates.

 

“You wanna watch a movie?” he asked while cutting the pizzas.

“Uhm, yeah, sure. What movies do you have?” Harry replied.

“Eh, we'll just see what's on Netflix.” Louis shrugged, took both plates and walked towards the living room. There was actual space on his coffee table for once and the pillows on his couch were actually on his couch and not lying on the ground next to it. He put the plates on the table, sat down and started up his x-box to open the Netflix app. Harry sat down next to him, still holding Dave in his arms like a child.

“So, what do you wanna watch?” Louis asked, flipping a bit through the selection.

“I don't really care, as long as it's not one of my films.” Harry answered.

“Are those even on Netflix?” Louis smirked and Harry nudged his knee with his own leg.

“500 days of Summer ok for you?” Louis asked.

“Of course.” Harry answered so he pushed the button and the movie started.

“You'll have to put the cat down if you wanna eat.” Louis noted and Harry legitimately looked distressed at the choice he was facing.

“You can just put him down next to you. He likes curling up against people's legs.” Louis said softly. Harry put Dave down who complained a bit before walking around in a circle and sitting back down next to Harry. They ate in silence and it didn't feel too awkward. Not yet anyway. But it still felt weird, he really didn't know a lot about Harry and he honestly didn't know how to start asking questions. Maybe it would come naturally later on. He told himself to calm down, freaking out over it wouldn't help him either. The closer he got to finishing his pizza, the more nervous he got about if he should start a conversation or not. Was Harry a person who commented on movies? Did he hate it if people talked during a film? Would he be too polite to tell Louis to shut up and then get secretly annoyed at him? Liking someone was so exhausting.

 

Louis sat back after he had finished and pulled his feet up on the couch, tucking one of his legs flat under the other one that was angled up, playing nervously with the hem of his joggers. Harry shuffled a bit but didn't really move back.

“You can just pick him up and put him on your lap.” Louis whispered amused.

“But he's sleeping.” Harry pouted.

“He's sleeping ninety percent of the time, he'll fall asleep again in a second.” Louis couldn't resist smiling at the discovery of how cute Harry acted around cats. “But for real, I'm scared someone is secretly giving him sleeping pills, it's not normal how much he sleeps.”

“Maybe he's awake during the night.” Harry stated, picking Dave up, leaning back on the couch and putting him on his lap without really waking him up. Dave turned around in his lap, now lying spread out on his back, legs stretched out over the length of Harry's body.

“Guess you have been hired as a cat chair.” Louis chuckled.

“Does this mean I have to stay here for the rest of my life now?” Harry asked, not seeming displeased with his new function. Louis blushed at the thought of Harry being a permanent addition to his apartment. He leaned his face against his knee and looked at the tellie again, playing with a loose strand of fabric on his pants. After tonight he could probably throw that pair away, if it still resembled pants until then.

 

“I like how this movie looks.” Harry said calmly and petted Dave.

“Yeah” Louis breathed out, trying not to think about how close his foot was to Harry's leg. “It has a really nice soundtrack too.”

“Mhmm.” Harry hummed. His hand grazed the underside of Louis' foot when he put his arm down, which made Louis pull it away in surprise. Sadly, having and army of small siblings hadn't made him immune to being ticklish.

“Sorry” Harry murmured and put his arm up against the backrest of the couch, angling it so that he could run his hand through his own hair. For the next few minutes Louis was painfully aware that if he leaned back Harry could easily stretch his arm around his shoulders. The debate on if he should or shouldn't do it completely overshadowed any parts of the movie that were trying to get noticed by his brain. At one point he even realized that he had stopped breathing. Leaning back slowly would be too obvious and Harry would look through every fake stretching attempt. The only way to do it was just let his body fall back and hope it looked at least somehow natural, although his body completely stiffened up the second his back hit the pillow.

 

I didn't take long until Harry's arm was slung over the whole of the backrest, his fingers almost brushing Louis shoulder. Louis realised that his foot was preventing him from shuffling closer to Harry, so he switched up his seating position, now tucking the other leg underneath himself and letting the one that Harry had brushed hanging from the edge of the couch. Now their legs were properly touching and it felt like every cell in his body was on fire. He was looking at the telly but his sole focus was on where his and Harry's bodies were touching.

 

The loose strand in his joggers had turned into a hole and his fingers had apparently vowed their lives to making it as big as possible. Dave had rolled up into a ball again, leaving Harry to move a bit more freely.

 

Half an hour passed and Louis body relaxed a bit. They gave a few off-hand comments on the movie here and there, Louis heart fluttering whenever he made Harry giggle. Somehow Harry had pushed his leg under Louis', resulting in Louis' knee now lying on Harry's thigh. Dave didn't seem too keen on having to share his new found bed. During the last fifteen minutes of the movie Harry's hand had fallen down a bit, his thumb now brushing up and down on Louis' shoulder. He was scared that Harry would be able to feel how fast his heart was beating through the fabric of his hoodie. His fingers were ice cold but the rest of his body was going up in flames and it was way too hot to still be wearing the beanie but he didn't wanna take the risk of messing his hair up. Louis shuffled a bit closer so that Harry could angle his arm around him, letting his hand fall to Louis' chest.

 

He hated having crushes, casual hook-ups were so much easier. What even was this? He felt like he was fifteen again, with the butterflies and all that nonsense. Soon he would start giggling at everything Harry said. God, he was halfway sure he already did that. Truly horrible.

 

The movie ended and Louis had to lean forward, which gave him an opportunity to start breathing again. Why hadn't he been blessed with being a smooth flirter? Why was his default behaviour around crushes to either be completely annoying or dead silent? Life didn't seem very fair. He looked through the selection of movies they could watch next, he wasn't really ready to let Harry go just yet, even if he would probably be exhausted at work tomorrow.

“Have you ever seen Moonrise Kingdom?” he asked without turning around.

“Yes but I really love it so I'm fine with watching it again.” Harry responded. Louis thought about searching for something else either way but then decided that he didn't want to waste half an hour deciding what movie they were gonna watch if he couldn't focus on it either way. He settled back into Harry's side, his arm slinging around his shoulder right away. Dave had jumped off and was now washing his back next to the TV. Louis hoped that he would keep it at that. He pulled up his legs, carefully putting his knees into Harry's lap. The movie started and Harry put his other hand on Louis knee, carefully caressing it with the tips of his fingers.

 

The terrible part about all of this was that Louis constantly felt like he was about to throw up and having so much on his body in permanent contact with Harry's didn't help. Louis hands were sweaty at his constant inner struggle if he should reach out to hold Harry's hand or not. He probably should, there wasn't really any questions on where all of this was going. He turned his body more towards Harry, stretching his legs so that he was practically sitting in Harry's lap. Harry's hand brushed it's way up the outside of Louis thigh, Louis painfully aware on how close it was to his ass. But it never went anywhere too far, only engulfing Louis in Harry's long arms and making him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. He could imagine how Dave must have felt before. He let his hand rest against Harry's stomach, brushing his thumb up and down. They sat like that for a while, settling into each other more to be more comfortable. If he could have this every day Louis wouldn't complain. His heart was slowly getting used to it and his breathing was evening out.

 

He leaned his head back against Harry's arm, turning his eyes to Harry. He could have counted all his eyelashes from this close. Harry turned his face towards him, just looking at him, slowly blinking. His hand went up to rest in the crook of Louis neck, his face inching closer until their lips softly met. It was a calm kiss. A warm one. One that felt like a million hugs. One that you never wanted to end. His lips felt a bit dry and a bit chafed but they were so soft and delicate. Louis tongue licked slowly against Harry's bottom lip, not pressing, just to get a glimpse of his taste. Harry's thumb caressed his jaw, his hand cupping the side of his face. Their tongues brushed against each other with no rush as if they had all the time in the world. It was lazy and sweet and perfect.

 

Their lips parted but they kept their eyes closed, breathing in the warmth of each other. Louis settled back into Harry's side, his head finding home in the crook of Harry's neck. Harry let his hand rest on Louis thigh, still sprawled out over his own legs, his other hand pulling Louis closer to himself. For the rest of the movie Louis was walking a fine line between staying awake and falling asleep. Harry's fingertips drawing light circles on his shoulder didn't really help his eyes stay open.

 

He jolted awake when Harry moved underneath him.

“I should probably go.” he whispered. Louis had to blink a few times before he even realised he had fallen asleep.

“Good morning.” Harry cheered with a huge grin.

“Shut up.” Louis mumbled, leaning away from Harry and rubbing his eyes. He hadn't even noticed Dave coming to sit next to his feet but he was thankful he was keeping them warm. Harry leaned in close to him to tug a few loose strands back into his beanie with his dimples on full display.

“Don't you have to get up early tomorrow morning?” Harry asked calmly, his hand resting on the small of Louis back.

“Ugh. Don't even mention it.” Louis groaned, burying his face in his hands. Harry's hand was rubbing slow patterns on his back and it was oddly calming. He could use that ever time he was freaking out over the smallest things in his life. He let his hands fall into his lap and turned his face to Harry. He was softly smiling at Louis like he was seeing something Louis' couldn't, like Louis had more importance in this universe than he thought he had. That look made his heart melt like hot chocolate, all sweet and tender, seeping into every little crook of his body and warming it up. He leaned in slowly and delicately put his lips on Harry's where he could still taste his smile. If he had to describe how Harry tasted he would say like a spring morning, when you're finally able to lie on the grass again and feel the sun heat up your face for the first time in months. That blossoming happiness you feel when you hear the first birds sing again and flowers paint the earth with a thousand colours and the air smells like a fresh start. Harry Styles tasted like the promise of something new.

 

“I have to go.” Harry chuckled softly into Louis mouth, his hand carefully resting on Louis' chest. Louis just groaned and continued kissing him which only resulted in Harry having to giggle, which led to both of them giggling, Louis burying his face into Harry's neck.

“What are you doing tomorrow evening?” Louis asked after they had calmed down a bit.

“We're doing night shoots again, I will only be back really late. I'm sorry.” Harry said and rubbed his thumb on Louis back as an apology. Louis pouted up at him.

“But I'll come over to the coffee shop in the morning.” Harry added quietly. Louis snuggled more into his side. He glanced over at the clock hanging on the wall noticing that it was already eleven p.m. He really wasn't going to get enough sleep. With a low groan he pushed himself away from Harry, took his feet out from under the warm Dave blanket and stood up.

“Up, up, you get.” He told Harry and moved away a bit so that he could stand up. He went to grab Harry's coat and his shoes and brought them to him.

“Do you have night shoots the whole week?” he asked, tugging his beanie back in place.

“Just tomorrow and Wednesday. Thursday I'm free and Friday we start very early in the morning. Saturday depends on how far we came during the other days and Sunday I should be free.” Harry explained while putting his shoes on. “So I can come over on Thursday afternoon if you'll have me.” he grinned hopefully and got up.

“Hmm, I'll have to think about it.” Louis pretended like there was even a remote possibility of him not wanting Harry to come over while walking towards the entrance door.

 

“How can I convince you?” Harry asked sheepishly, putting his coat on while following him into the hallway.

“It's not my role to tell you how to convince me.” he raised and eyebrow and leaned against the wall next to the door. Harry was smirking at him with a glint in his eyes. Louis let his head fall backwards, smirking back at Harry while slowly letting his tongue drag over his bottom lip. Harry slowly walked over to him, putting a hand on each side of his hip, letting his mouth meet the side of Louis neck. He kissed slowly upwards, lightly biting at Louis jaw, just brushing his teeth on Louis skin. Louis closed his eyes, only focusing on Harry's fleeting lips and the grounding halt of his hands on his hips. Their lips met, less sweet than before, less tender, but with so much more intent. Louis hands shot up to Harry's hair, his fingers brushing through the soft curls. This time he could really get a feeling of Harry's tongue, on which parts were rougher and which parts were softer. Harry pressed his body against Louis, letting his thumbs brush against Louis skin as they sneaked underneath his hoodie. That first touch against naked skin was like sparks, like a lightning ran through his whole body from those two points. He could feel it creep up his spine, his whole body trying to lean more into Harry. Harry was grinning into the kiss like he knew exactly what he was doing.

 

“Was that convincing enough?” Harry whispered.

“Yeah.” Louis answered a bit breathless. Harry was smiling from ear to ear, his dimples the most endearing thing in the world.

“Bye” he said and pressed a quick kiss to Louis' lips and then he was out of the apartment before Louis could even fully realise it. He closed the door to the sound of Harry skipping down the stairs, not being able to stop smiling at himself. He turned around and found Dave standing in the doorway, looking at him in a peculiar way.

“Oh shut up.” he mumbled but still picked him up on his way to bed.

 

**L to the W (@TheTommoWay)**

=) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =)

 

~

 

He had woken up feeling exhausted but he didn't even care. There could be a blizzard outside and he would still feel all warm inside. He had tried keeping a neutral face while entering the coffee shop but Niall had still squinted his eyes at him. He was thankful that he hadn't said anything though and they didn't really have a lot of time to talk with how many customers there had been. He had lost the overview of everything a bit but he was pretty sure there were two teenage girls who had been sitting in the corner for the last three hours.

 

“Am I hallucinating or have those two literally been sitting there since seven?” he asked, leaning with one hand against the counter and putting the other one on his hip.

“Maybe they're too shy to ask us out.” Niall smirked. “They have been looking over quite a lot.” he winked at them when they turned their heads to them again only for them to snap back right away.

“Well seems like they aren't interested in you.” Louis teased him.

“Yeah right, you just want them for yourself” Niall scoffed.

“Nah.” Louis leaned with both elbows against the counter, cocking his hips to one side.

“Oh yeah, I forgot that crush of yours.” Niall grinned at him.

“Shut up.” Louis muttered, eyes locked on the door.

“Are we at the point where you're not denying it any more?” Niall looked like he was having way too much fun. Louis didn't want to keep this a secret from him but he also really didn't want to have a discussion about it. Niall looked at him, still grinning, like he already knew what was going on.

 

Luckily Louis was saved by a group of people coming in.

“He came over yesterday.” he murmured before smiling widely at the customers. Niall's face fell for a second but he caught himself right away. At least like this he wouldn't directly get assaulted with questions. Hopefully there would be a constant flow of customers from now until shift end so that he wouldn't have to talk about it at all. But of course, the flow only lasted for ten minutes, because even on good days like these luck wasn't on Louis side.

“He came over?” Niall asked carefully after they were alone again.

“Yep.” Louis answered without looking at him.

“And?” Niall drew out.

“And … we ate pizza and watch a few movies.” He pretended to be cleaning up to counter but he could still feel Niall's eyes on him. “And maybe there was some snogging involved.” he added quickly. Niall's face lit up like the Rockefeller Centre Christmas tree. “Do not fucking say anything.” Louis hissed at him which completely got ignored by Niall.

“Louis!” he yelled and jumped at him, hugging him so tightly that Louis almost couldn't breath any more.

“Get off of me! I hate you!” Louis tried to push him away but he only felt like a cat being hugged by an over enthusiastic child.

“I am so proud of you my son!” Niall laughed. “Finally you won't die alone.”

“Shut up, you're the one who's gonna die alone!” Louis was two seconds away from punching him in the dick if he didn't let him go.

“I won't have to disinherit you from the family any more.” He took Louis' face in both hands and gave him a sloppy kiss to the cheek. “Oh my god I have to tell this to Stan, he's gonna be such a proud mother.”

“Don't tell anyone!” Louis almost shouted and Niall stopped in his tracks, his phone already in his hands. Louis had to really make it clear to him that he didn't want anyone to know about this. It was a too delicate situation to discuss it publicly. “Please don't tell anyone.” he said softer. Niall squinted his eyes at him for a second before putting his phone away.

 

“So” Niall started and Louis knew that the uncomfortable part was coming. “Was this just a one off thing?”

“Probably not.” Louis answered, leaning with his hip against the counter and crossing his arms.

“But he's going back in a week or so.” Niall said sceptically.

“Yeah, I know.” Louis looked down and bit his lips.

“Are you sure ...” Niall sounded way too concerned.

“No.” Louis cut him off. “Look, I know it's a stupid decision and I will probably regret it in a month or so but I've been feeling like shit for so long now and maybe this will make me fee a bit better. I've started writing again and, ok, maybe they're shit but at least I'm trying again. I don't wanna wake up in a year and ask myself what if.” He tried to explain, pulling all his courage together to actually look him in the eyes.

“Alright.” The good thing about Niall was that he just understood you before you yourself even truly understood everything, and he would support you even if your plan would lead you both to your doom. “He doesn't look like someone who would just play with you, so I don't think that I'll have to fight him. But if he ever fucks up I'll gather everyone together and we'll beat him up.”

“Thanks mate.” Louis chuckled.

“As long as you're happy, I'm happy.” Niall grinned from one ear to the other and this time when he hugged him, Louis didn't try to push him away.

 

~

 

It was almost lunch time when Harry dropped by. He came in with the sunshine, like winter had already past. The second he laid eyes on Louis he smiled so bright you could probably see it from the moon. Louis was thankful that there weren't any other customers demanding his attention so that he could stare at Harry for the whole half second it took him to cross the room. He was wearing his green beanie again with his beige coat.

“Hi.” he whispered to Louis with the softest voice.

“Hi.” Louis whispered back and he felt like he was cuddling up in a blanket of clouds.

They just stared at each other for a little while, probably looking like complete idiots.

“How are you?” Harry finally asked.

“Pretty good.” Louis answered with a smirk. “I guess you're doing really well since you were able to sleep for so long.” Harry chuckled lightly and Louis' heart skipped a beat, but what was new?

“I slept well, yes, thank you. Although there was something missing.” He grinned and paused for a while. “Next time I'm at your place I'll have to kidnap Dave.” Louis laughed out loud.

“Look, if my sisters haven't managed to steal him yet, you sure as hell won't be able to do it either. You can try as hard as you like but you'll never be able to pull off the innocent, cute pout as well as a bunch of teen girls.” he laughed at Harry who was still trying to pout. Louis wished there wasn't a counter between them and that they weren't surrounded by a ton of people so that he could just touch Harry.

 

But of course those two girls that had been sitting at the table for hours had been waiting for Harry and had to come over to ask for photos when he was talking to Harry. It wasn't like he only had a few days left with Harry. Oh no wait, that was totally the case. He didn't know if it was a good sign that he was already getting jealous but he couldn't keep his fake smile from becoming ust a tiny bit bitter. It didn't take long and they were at their table again in no time, looking at their pictures and probably taking a few shots from far away too. The problem was that there was now actual work to do and Harry had to step aside to let Louis take a few orders.

 

“Oh yeah, do we still stand for the football match on Sunday?” Harry asked when the last customer had left.

“Ehm, yeah sure.” Louis thought for a while. “Niall, do you have time on Sunday?” he shouted over his shoulder.

“I think so, why?” Niall came over to them.

“Harry wanted to organise a footie game. Them versus us and all that. I don't know why though, maybe he's got a kink for losing.” he said with a smirk.

“What happened to being nice to your guests?” Harry complained.

“There is no mercy in football.” Louis answered with a straight face.

“If there is one thing you have to know about Louis, then it's that he takes football way too seriously.” Niall informed Harry.

“I already had a feeling about that.” Harry said and Louis narrowed his eyes at him. He should look out for what he was saying. Louis could handle a lot but he wouldn't be caught dead with someone who would mock football.

“I'm sorry I can't stay any longer though, babe, I have to go to set.” Harry apologized to Louis and his heart totally did not fall into the deepest pits of his stomach at the word babe. “I'll see how many people I can drum together and then I'll tell you when exactly we can do it.”

“Alright, I'm sure my little sisters would love to join the team too.” he cocked an eyebrow.

“Using children as a diversion tactic isn't very fair though.” Harry frowned.

“Hey, you can be happy I'm leaving Dave at home.” he raised his hands in defence.

“He's only trying to distract you from his horrible footie skills.” Niall chimed in.

“How dare you?!” Louis took a step back in shock. He couldn't believe Niall would stab him in the back like that, like it was nothing at all. And of course he was laughing now, because when was Niall ever not laughing. He really needed to reconsider this friendship.

 

“I should really heat out.” Harry said. “See you on Sunday, Niall.” he waved at him and Niall waved back. “See you soon.” he told Louis softly and it made him blush, for whatever reason. On his way out he waved at the two girls still sitting in the corner and they looked like they were about to have a heart attack.

“He called you babe.” Niall whispered in his ear.

“You think I didn't notice that?” Louis rolled his eyes at him.

“Sooo... what does this mean then?” Niall teased.

“Absolutely bloody nothing you have to know.” he answered and turned to go to the back room. He honestly didn't know if it even meant anything at all, he was just trying to stay relatively calm at this point.

 

**Harry follow me please! (@Hazzzzzza)**

We've been waiting here for 4 hours fml

 

**Harry follow me please! (@Hazzzzzza)**

I'm lowkey sure those guys behind the counter were the same dudes as in that group pic

 

**Harry follow me please! (@Hazzzzzza)**

lmao did he really befriend the local baristas? How freaking cute is that?

 

**Harry follow me please! (@Hazzzzzza)**

@HarryStyles please show up I'm getting bored

 

**Harry follow me please! (@Hazzzzzza)**

Ok but like the blond one is really cute

 

**Harry follow me please! (@Hazzzzzza)**

Should I go ask for his number? He winked at us earlier. Rose thinks I'm stupid and he would give it to me anyway rip

 

**Harry follow me please! (@Hazzzzzza)**

OSGNFSJGWPRFV HARRY JUST CAME IN

 

**Harry follow me please! (@Hazzzzzza)**

OH MY GOD HE IS SO PRETTY!!!!!!

 

**Harry follow me please! (@Hazzzzzza)**

LOOK AT HIM! HE'S WEARING HIS GREENBAY PACKERS BEANIE!!! WHY IS HE SO CUTE????

x x

 

**Harry follow me please! (@Hazzzzzza)**

WE WENT UP TO HIM HE IS SO NICE HE SMELLED SO FRESH MY SKIN IS CLEARED MY CROPS ARE WATERED THANK YOU @GOD

 

**Harry follow me please! (@Hazzzzzza)**

Ignore my ugly face but look at how glowing he is. I think I'm dead now

x

 

 

**Harry follow me please! (@Hazzzzzza)**

LOOK AT HOW CUTE HE IS WITH HIS MATES HE'S WAITING FOR THEM TO SERVE ALL THOSE PEOPLE HE DIDN'T EVEN ORDER ANYTHING HIMSELF

x x

 

**Harry Styles Updates (@HSUpdates)**

Harry today in the little cup of home coffee shop in Doncaster with @Hazzzzzza and her friend

x

 

**Harry Styles Updates (@HSUpdates)**

It seems as if the guys that were pictured at the golf club with Harry on Saturday work in that coffee shop

x x x x

 

**Harry follow me please! (@Hazzzzzza)**

Lmao that other guy looked so pissed when we came to talk to Harry

 

**Pat loves Harry (@BraidingHarrysHair)**

@Hazzzzzza RIP I would fucking hate you if you came and took H's attention away from me

 

**Harry follow me please! (@Hazzzzzza)**

@BraidingHarrysHair Damn he looks more in love with Harry than I do

 

**Jayne (@ImpalasAndDestiel)**

@Hazzzzzza I SHIP IT

 

**Harry follow me please! (@Hazzzzzza)**

@ImpalasAndDestiel NO JAYNE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO SHIP ME WITH HIM!!!

 

~

 

They hadn't stopped texting each other since Monday. What they didn't tell you about being an actor was that there was a lot of waiting involved. Especially when they changed scenes and material had to be moved from one spot to the other and you weren't really allowed to do anything in your fancy clothes. So instead of spending all his time in that tiny fish-bowl they called a trailer he hung around on set. He send Louis pictures of everything he found there, mostly close-up shots or weird angles since you aren't really allowed to take pictures of the set. He also send him pictures of people working there, some smiling, some confused, most of them looking stressed out and a bit annoyed, with their names and jobs written under the picture like Louis was supposed to learn who they were by heart. Louis just send him pictures of coffee and Niall, giving them the same pseudo artistic treatment. So now Harry had a wonderful black and white image of Niall's left nostril and a rather striking picture of a steaming mug against the backdrop of the street window with the first snowflakes of the year. Obviously there had been an avalanche of pictures of Dave once he was home, with ever growing threads of Harry deleting his number if he didn't stop because he was growing jealous. Of course Louis didn't stop because he loved seeing people in pain like that and the pictures were genuinely cute.

 

His apartment hadn't stayed tidy for very long. It wasn't exactly a complete mess again but he couldn't be bothered to put the video game cases back on the shelve or to take his hoodie off of the couch. He just told himself that it looked like somebody lived there. As long as the dishes weren't spilling over into the living room everything was fine.

 

Harry had proposed that they cook together that evening and although Louis wasn't the biggest fan of cooking he understood that Harry didn't have the opportunity to do it anywhere else and apparently he really missed it. He had given Harry free reign with what they would cook, telling him the stuff he usually liked, which, he had to admit, wasn't a very fancy selection. Harry had said it would be a surprise, promising him that he would make something Louis would probably like. All day long he had gotten inquiries on which ingredients he liked or didn't like and with a few of them he was actually scared that people actually ate those things. There just were a few pieces of an animal that you shouldn't eat under any circumstances.

 

The door rang at about half past five. Louis leg hadn't stopped nervously bobbing up and down for the last two hours and his fingertips were ice cold. At least this time he was wearing socks. He had his ripped black jeans on, with a white stone roses tank top and a dark gold hoodie over it. He hadn't really know what to do with his hair, a quiff probably too fancy for just staying inside, so he had just styled it into a fringe. He opened the door for Harry, wiping his moist hands on his jeans while waiting for Harry to come up the stairs. This time he was wearing his white jeans, with a light pastel floral shirt, like he was making a point of being the complete opposite of last time. He had two well packed plastic bags with him and Louis asked himself if they were really gonna eat that much.

 

“Hi” Harry said softly as he came up to Louis and gave him a small kiss on the lips.

“Hi” Louis smiled into the kiss. He took the bags from Harry and carried them into the kitchen so that Harry could take off his shoes and coat. When he entered the kitchen he had apparently already found Dave and was now carrying him around.

“Please don't tell me the cat is on the menu.” Louis pleaded. Harry looked at him in horror and turned his body away from Louis.

“No.” he answered way too seriously, pressing Dave to his chest.

“I kind of feel like you like the cat more than you like me.” Louis said mockingly while taking the food out of the bags. It started out pretty normal with onions and garlic and tomatoes. Salt and pepper in little glass bottles although Louis would have also had that at home. Next came salad and beans and that already seemed like a lot of vegetables to Louis, hopefully the next bag wouldn't be so healthy. His face lit up when he took the tortillas and ground beef out of the other bag and fell into a frown when he pulled the avocados out.

“Hmm, I think you're on the same level.” Harry said and would he have actually paid attention, he might have objected to having to compete for his affection against a cat.

“You wanna do the guacamole yourself?” Louis asked, still frowning.

“Well, yeah, isn't that the definition of cooking?” Harry answered.

“Yeah but that doesn't mean you have to do everything yourself.” Louis complained while taking the rest of out of the bags.

“There isn't a lot to do with burritos anyway.” Harry came closer to him. “We should probably put the beef and the rest we don't need in the fridge while we do the guacamole.” He added and put Dave down on the floor before putting everything they needed right away in one pile on the table.

 

“You could have just asked if I had salt and pepper in the house you know.” Louis pointed out.

“This was safer and faster.” Harry just shrugged while washing his hands. Louis sighed and rolled his eyes. It was also more expensive but he didn't want to get into an argument with Harry over bloody guacamole. They took a few bowls and knives out and his potato masker his mother had given him a few years ago that had never been used before.

“Can you pass me the tomatoes?” Louis asked.

“Avo – can – do “ Harry said with a huge grin while putting the bag with the tomatoes in front of him. Louis couldn't believe he just had to hear that with his own two ears.

“That is the worst joke I have heard in my entire life.” he said, staring Harry in the eyes to make sure he knew that he wasn't joking. How dare Harry bring such bad puns into his house and not even look remorseful about it. He was in fact silently giggling about it. Hadn't Louis been so smitten with him, he would have probably kicked him out. But as it was he just turned his attention to cutting the tomatoes and biting down on his lips to suppress the smile that was trying to form on his lips. They were done in a little over ten minutes and Louis had to admit that it really wasn't that difficult to make, even rather fun with Harry allowing him to mash it and then smearing it on Harry's cheek like war paint.

 

He sat on the table while Harry was cooking the ground beef, letting his feet swing lazily, listening to Harry tell him what the movie was about and all the fights the different departments were getting into. They sat down in the kitchen to eat this time, making each burrito individually as they ate them. Apparently the direction kept on changing scenes and when they should shoot what and just messing with everyone's schedule so the art director didn't know where to put his focus first. It al seemed so stressful but Harry told it like it was the most common thing in the world. He told him about the other actors and the extras who had to wait around for hours just to walk across a room a few times. He told him about the lighting department being French because it was a co-production and he had found someone who was willing to teach him the language. He told him about the amazing little deserts they got from the caterers and the fruits salads they did every afternoon. He retold him all the jokes he had heard and managed to remember but had somehow got the punchline wrong or said it with the wrong intonation so that it wasn't really funny any more but Louis still laughed so hard that he started crying. He gave him every detail of the costumes, every embroidered flower, every hand stitched pattern, every symbolism behind each colour, and he said it with so much love in his voice that it didn't even bother Louis that he didn't know half of the words. It was just so fascinating to listen to Harry talk about something he so clearly adored even if he lost his train of thought sometimes and started rambling about something completely different. Yeah, Louis wouldn't mind listening to this voice more often.

 

“You want to go do something else?” Harry asked a bit shyly after he had spend an hour talking and Louis had spend it contently listening to him.

“Yeah why not.” he shrugged. “We could go outside and just walk around a bit. It's dark anyway and I know places where the streets will be empty anyways.”

“Oh, so you can finally show me the places in Doncaster you really know.” Harry teased while getting up and putting their dishes away.

“Hey, this'll be the first time we'll be outside where I won't be drunk off my ass.” Louis smirked, standing up to help Harry clear the table. “Shit, I hope I won't actually find out that I can't stand you.” he added, looking at Harry in horror. Harry pushed him softly against the table, putting his hands on the dip of his hips. Louis slung his arms around Harry's neck and smiled up at him. Like there would ever be a possibility that he did anything but completely adore this boy.

“Has your mother never told you that lying is bad?” Harry asked in a low voice, putting his lips only inches apart from Louis'.

“I do a lot of things my mother wouldn't be too happy about.” Louis breathed against Harry's mouth. Harry just hummed and then kissed him, like he had wanted to say something but decided that the other option was much more enjoyable. He still tasted like food but Louis didn't really mind. He laced his fingers together behind Harry's neck, letting his tongue lazily drag over Harry's. He softly bit at Harry's bottom lips without a real goal behind it, just teasing him. Harry's hands wandered around his back, stopping at his ass and just laying there. It evolved into just little kisses, first on the lips and then Harry made his way up Louis' cheek to his eye.

“Stop that.” Louis murmured between his giggles but Harry only started smiling and continued to kiss his eyelids.

“Stop it.” Louis giggled and put his hands on Harry's chest to softly push him away. Harry looked at him with so much adoration that Louis couldn't look him in the eyes without instantly transforming into a tomato.

 

“We should go.” he whispered, unable to hide his smile.

“Yeah.” Harry nodded and moved away from him, putting his hands into the back pockets of his white pants.

“You might shine like a beacon in the dark with these though.” Louis frowned and pointed at Harry's pants.

“I'm not gonna change into an other pair of pants, Louis.” Harry stated.

“It's your fault if people start following us like boats if you insist on pretending to be a lighthouse.” Louis raised his hands in defeat and moved to go put on some shoes.

“I'll give you one of my beanies and a scarf.” he said when Harry came in after him.

“You really don't have to.” Harry tried to convince him, putting his own shoes on.

“Stop being so polite. If you fall sick you won't be able to act and then they'll have to reschedule the shoots and we won't be able to play football on Sunday. So this isn't at all about you, this is just me being selfish.” he said and threw a soft-grey woollen scarf in Harry's face, pulling a black one around his own neck.

“You are so nice to me.” Harry said in a dry tone, letting Louis put a matching light-grey beanie on his head. Louis only furrowed his eyes at him while putting on his own beanie.

 

~

 

Louis knew this place in Doncaster where they wouldn't be bothered. They walked around for a while, taking a detour so that Louis could show Harry his grandparents' old house. They were really going away from the centre of the city, the streets getting more and more empty and dark the longer they walked. It was a calm night. The snow that had fallen before hadn't lasted for long and now the streets were dry again. There weren't any clouds in the sky which only made the night colder. Louis had grabbed Harry's hand and intertwined them when they had gotten into the more residential aread where there weren't cars flying by them every second. His fingers might be ice on the outside but Harry's touch felt like the heat a camp fire emitted.

 

“I know this old abandoned house from like, I don't know when, but really old, and someone still owns it and cleans it up every year or so but they don't live in it. It's actually completely empty inside, no furniture, nothing. God knows why they aren't selling that house, maybe it's haunted. Anyway, there's this balcony on the backside on the first floor you can easily climb up to and one summer me and Stand went up there every night and like broke into the house. But at one point you started to see the scratch marks on the door from when we broke it open and we were worried they would see it and change the door or something. So we decided to cut out one of the panels of the door and make it so that you could push it out and put it back in easily.” Louis explained.

“You were scared that they would notice you breaking in so you cut a huge hole into the door?” Harry asked sceptically.

“But it's really well done. Like, we unhinged the door and spend a whole week on it. I don't think I have ever done a better job with anything else. And they never changed the door so they either didn't notice or they just don't care.” Louis shrugged.

“I can't believe I kissed a criminal.” Harry chuckled.

“Told you me mum wouldn't approve of everything I do.” Louis said and winked at him.

 

“Oh there it is.” He pointed to the end of the road. It was a dark house, like a small mansion from a lost time, all symmetry and tidiness. All the curtains were closed like it didn't want to be disturbed.

“This way.” Louis murmured and pulled Harry along to a small path that ran next to the house and continued into the forest behind it. Thankfully there weren't any puddles around. They left the path to get to the backside of the house. With all it's size there apparently hadn't been enough space left to have a large garden too.

“The fence is actually pretty easy to climb over, you just have to make sure no one sees you.” Louis whispered, shaking the fence at some points to see where it was the most solid.

“Was this your hobby as a child? Just breaking into people's houses?” Harry asked.

“So you never did anything you weren't allowed to do when you were younger?” Louis asked in response, stopping at the top of the fence to look at him. “God, your life sounds so boring.” he added as he let himself fall down the other side. Harry followed him, a bit slower to make sure that he wouldn't tarnish his white pants.

 

“Come this way.” Louis whispered, taking Harry by the hand as he walked over to the house. There was a wooden grid on the wall that held ivy vines but with the time and the cold the plants had died and were only sparsely covering the grid. If you climb up on the left side until you got on the hight of this small window you could climb up on it's ledge and then let yourself down onto the balcony. It was a bit risky and maybe a bit stupid, but what was life worth without adventure like that.

“I'll go up first so you can see where you have to go.” Louis said and pulled himself up the wooden structure.

“We're going up that thing?” Harry looked at him shocked. Louis stopped to stare at him and slowly shook his head.

“Live a little Harold.” he said and continued climbing up. “It's was your decision not to change pants.” he heaved himself up until he was on the right hight and then reached across with his foot until he was sure he wouldn't slip from the ledge. He pushed himself off the grid, slid across the ledge, then squatted down to grab the ledge with his hands and let himself fall down onto the balcony.

“You're lucky I got some stunt training not long ago.” Harry called up quietly. Louis leaned with his elbows on the railing of the balcony, looking down at Harry.

 

“Oh Romeo, Oh Romeo, will you shut up and just get your ass up here?” he smirked.

“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?” Harry recited, carefully checking out how stable the structure was. “It is the east and Louis is the sun! Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon” Even though he did it slowly, it didn't look like Harry had a lot of difficulties getting up the grid. “Who is already sick and pale with grief, that thou her maid art far more fair than she.” He took his fair time to get up the ledge, making sure his boots wouldn't slip away. “Be not her maid, since she is envious.”

“Are you trying to impress me?” Louis scoffed, having turned around and now leaning with his back against the railing. Harry landed on the balcony way more gracefully than Louis would have thought he could manage with those long legs of his.

“Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, having some business, do entreat her eyes.” Harry continued while walking slowly over to Louis. “To twinkle in their spheres till they return. What if his eyes were there, they in his head?” He came to stand between Louis legs, putting his hands on the sides of Louis' hips, smiling at him. “The brightness of his cheek would shame those stars, as daylight doth a lamp. His eyes in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright, that birds would sing and think it were not night.” He slowly leaned in to gently press his lips against Louis.

“Shut up, I'm not going to kill myself for you.” Louis murmured back, but didn't pull away from the kiss.

“I'm so happy I found someone who appreciates romance.” Harry mumbled and kissed Louis again.

 

“I can totally out-romance you.” Louis said and pushed Harry away from him. He walked over to the door, crouched down and pushed at the lower right panel of the double doors. They hadn't used it in some time now that everyone was off to Uni or too busy being an adult. It seemed to jam so he kicked it with his foot until it budged. He slipped through it, standing up on the other side and letting Harry also pass through it. The house was just slightly warmer than the outside but at least you couldn't feel the wind in here. Louis took out his phone and activated the light on it, using it as a torch. He pushed it into Harry's hand, put the panel back into it's socket and took the phone back. With his free hand he grabbed Harry's hand and led him through the house.

“This has more a horror movie vibe then being very romantic.” Harry teased him.

 

“Don't judge until we're there.” Louis responded, leading them out of the room and up the stairs. They had to go to the last floor and then cross through the hallway to get to the staircase that would lead them to the upper floor of one of the side towers. They came into a small room right under the roof where you could barely stand straight.

“Hold this.” Louis told Harry and gave him the phone again. He reached up to grab the handle of the hatch above them, putting his whole weight on it to open it. It gave in, spreading the thin coat of dust that had been on it throughout the room and letting it glitter in the moonlight. He grabbed the edge of the opening and pulled himself up onto the flat roof. It wasn't a very wide surface but it was enough to lay down.

“You need help to get up?” Louis asked, taking the phone away from Harry again and putting it back in his pocket.

“No, I think I'll be fine.” Harry answered and pulled himself up with not too much effort.

 

“Voilà.” Louis grinned as Harry stood up on the roof. “What did I promise you.” He looked at Harry while he was looking around, amazed by the view they had up here. You could see so much of the city, like a ocean of lights. It wasn't that the house was that tall, granted, it was taller than the houses around it, but the whole area was slightly higher than the centre of the city. If he turned around, he had the same view of the pitch black forest and even a shimmer of the next town behind it.

“This is beautiful.” Harry breathed out.

“I know, even criminals can appreciate beauty.” Louis whispered back. Harry chuckled and kept on looking out into the horizon, the lights of the city reflecting in his eyes while the moon drew soft shadows on his face.

“Lie down with me.” Louis said and sat down on the floor, patting the ground next to him. They both lay down next to each other, intertwining their hands and looking up at the sky. They could see so many stars from up here, where no street lights were in the way. Louis wished he knew anything about astronomy so he could point out the constellations to Harry.

“Thank you.” Harry whispered and squeezed Louis hand.

 

They didn't talk for a few minutes, just breathing in the cold air, Louis thumb rubbing slow circles on the back of Harry's hand.

“I have been thinking about what I wanted to do with my life.” Louis started, not really sure where he wanted this to go but he knew he needed to get it out at one point. “I tried going to Uni and doing something serious, but I just … I can't concentrate and I'm just not interested in any of it and I don't think I could just stay in one place for the rest of my life and do the same thing, you know?”

“Yeah, I get that.” Harry agreed quietly.

“I know that the chances of making it in music are so slim, especially if you're a coward like me.” Harry nudged him in the ribs. “No, it's true, how else would you call it. I wish I was more confident in it but I can't do it. I feel like throwing up every time I even think about it. It's horrible. I can run around screaming and making a fool of myself and not care one bit but I can't even sit me mum down in front of me and play her one of my songs. It's so pathetic. But, I can't imagine anything else I would be happy with. Sure, there is other stuff that interests me and that would be fun to do, but just for a little while. And I get sad whenever I think about it, so I'd much rather not think about it at all and just drift through life. Which is just such a waste.” He could feel his throat tighten up, his breaths getting stuck in it, because crying over this alone at home was one thing but letting it all out into the world for the whole sky to hear was something different.

“Have you ever tried recording yourself?” Harry whispered calmly. “Record one of your songs and then send it to someone, so you don't have to be in the room when they hear it, and then they can get back to you about it later on.”

“Yeah but that doesn't exactly solve the whole playing live problem, does it?” Louis sneered.

“It's a start.” Harry turned his head to look at him. “If they tell you they like it you'll already have that problem off your shoulders. You'll have less pressure while playing.”

“What if I fuck up live?” Louis asked silently.

“Then you start again. They'll understand. They love you, they don't care how often you have to start. Your mum isn't gonna laugh at you if you have to start over. You just have to get used to it.” Harry said with conviction. “I wouldn't laugh at you.”

 

Louis grunted and pressed his eyes shut. “Why do you have your life so figured out?” he sighed.

“I don't.” Harry whispered back. Louis turned his head to look at him, frowning lightly. He damn well looked like he had it figured out, or at least he didn't look like he wasn't happy.

“Is this about the Hollywood thing? You know you don't have to go if you don't want to. Just tell your agent that it won't make you happy. I'm sure he would rather have a flourishing client here than a miserable one in LA.” Louis tried to reassure him.

“It's not really about that.” Harry said quietly, taking a break to gather his thoughts. “I love movies and playing in them, but I have always wanted to try out theatre. It just seems like such a thrill to be on a stage and getting to perform in front of a ton of people. But it's a completely different kind of acting, you need to be able to transfer emotions even to the farthest rows. They aren't going to see your face and all the little details, you really have to work with your body. And you need to remember everything. It's just so much work and dedication. I'm not saying it's harder than cinema, 'cause a lot of theatre actors probably couldn't do films. It's just different.”

“So what's keeping you from doing it?” Louis asked softly.

“Probably the same as you. Scared to fuck up.” He smiled weakly at Louis. Louis chuckled lightly. What a pair of losers they were. They could do so much with their life and here they were too scared to take the first step.

“When I give my first concert, you have to promise me to go audition for a theatre piece.” Louis whispered, smiling fondly at him. Harry turned to his side, snuggling up to Louis, putting his head on his chest and wrapping an arm around his waist.

“Sure.” he whispered back. Louis pressed a light kiss to the top of Harry's head a wrapped his arms around him. He looked up to the stars, wondering if this was finally the turning point. Maybe he could do it, slowly, if he had someone there who understood him and who would be patient. It wouldn't be any better tomorrow, but maybe he wouldn't feel so completely trapped by himself any more.

 

He shut his eyes and nuzzled his face into Harry's hair, quietly starting to sing.

 

_Birds flying high, you know how I feel_

_Sun in the sky, you know how I feel_

_Breeze drifting on by, you know how I feel_

 

~

 

It was Sunday morning and he hadn't seen Harry in three days. After they had broken into the old house and just laid on the roof until they couldn't feel their limbs any more they had gone home, to their separate beds although Louis had figured, lying alone in the dark at night, he wouldn't have minded if Harry had stayed over. But his shooting schedule was hectic and he had to be on set at weird hours and stay for the whole day because they were trying to get most of the shots done before Sunday so they would have less stress on the last two days. It sucked for Louis, it really did. He finally had managed to find a someone he really liked and then he didn't even have time to hang out with him. It didn't really help make him feel any better. They had texted a lot and talked on the phone until their eyes had fallen shut and Louis asked himself how long they would be able to do that until it all just faded away and they wouldn't even get to see each other again before they broke up.

 

He was lying on his couch, TV on as a background noise but he wasn't looking at it, just staring up at the ceiling. He rubbed both hands over his face and grunted. He was sick of always feeling like nothing would ever go right. All this negativity was so exhausting but he didn't know how to turn it off, didn't know how to make it change. There wasn't really anything he could do. He just had to wait and see how it would all work out, if Harry would still have time for him and how he would react with not seeing him all the time. They say you can't miss something you have never had but he wasn't so sure about this. He already missed waking up to Harry next to him even if it had never happened. He didn't know if it was a better idea to never experience it at all or to have it once and then get it ripped away from him again.

 

He really had to get up if he wanted to be at the football field on time. Niall was coming to pick him up this time and he still had to pack his things. He had managed to get a few of his and Niall's friends together. Ok, most of them were Niall's friends because most of his were off to Uni and Niall just knew about ten times more people than him. But at least Stan had agreed to come over for it and Luke was in town anyway and it wasn't like he had never seen Niall's friends before, so he was ok with it. On the other hand he didn't know how well they played, hopefully better than Harry's thrown together group of colleagues.

 

He pushed himself off the couch and walked over to his bedroom, gathering his sports bag and throwing his gear into it. He looked at his phone but Niall hadn't texted him yet. Neither had Harry and he was debating if he should text him now when his screen lit up with Niall's name.

“Yeah?” he asked when picking up the phone.

“Get your ass down here!” Niall told him.

“I'll be there in a sec.” He said and hung up. He went to put on his shoes, petted Dave goodbye and headed downstairs.

 

~

 

For once they arrived a bit early. The weather had turned a bit in the last few days so that the sky was covered but it hadn't rained yet, hopefully it wouldn't start now. Slowly people trickled in and Louis tried to remember everyone's name. Harry had even managed to get two of the girls from the costume department on his team and the rest were guys from all ages and stature, some even looking like body builders. Probably those who moved the sets around, Louis reckoned. Harry finally arrived and Louis didn't really know how to react, besides melting into a happy little puddle when Harry smiled at him. They hadn't really talked about how they would act around each other in public and he didn't want to assume anything on Harry's side. Especially with someone remotely famous, you never knew how much they wanted the world to know and how much they wanted to keep to themselves.

 

“Ready to get annihilated, Styles?” he asked with a smirk.

“You won't even stand a chance.” Harry answered and he could see a spark rise in his eyes. He knew then that Harry wouldn't make it easy for him, that no matter how nice he was in real life, this would be something completely different. Good, Louis didn't like it when people didn't give at least hundred and ten percent during football, he wouldn't want it any other way with Harry either.

“I'm not driving anyone to the hospital today.” Bressie interjected, standing next to Niall and Julian.

“Nah mate, we'll just lock them away if they start acting up.” A red headed guy that had introduced himself as Ed joked. Louis shot daggers at him with his eyes. No one was taking this serious enough and he would have to remind them of it on the field.

 

They weren't playing on any of the major fields and Louis had gotten the keys to the changing rooms that were luckily also equipped with showers. They went in to change into their gear and came out ten minutes later, ready to take on the other team. Liam was gonna be their goalkeeper and like it seemed the other team had put Paul, a tall, muscular guy, in their goal. Louis had told everyone where they should be standing on his assessment of everyone's skills and no one had dared to protest it. Or they just didn't care. At least he could count on Stan to be serious about this. The two of them were at the front, Niall, Luke, Scott and Josh formed the middle field, and Bressie, Julian, Rory and Deo formed the back. The other team seemed to put one of the girls, Cara, and Zayn in the front, Harry was on the right middle field with Ed right next to him. They had agreed that they wouldn't be playing for a full ninety minutes, but rather just fifty minutes and take a break after the first twenty-five. He had hooked his phone up to speakers and set an alarm so that they wouldn't have to keep an eye on the clock.

 

Louis put the ball down on the ground in the middle of the field and waited for Zayn to come over. They played a game of rock paper scissors to see who would get the ball because that was more convenient than having to carry a coin with them.

“No bets this time?” Louis smirked as he balled his hand into a fist.

“That wouldn't be very fair now, would it?” Zayn sneered. Louis chose scissors, Zayn chose rock.

“No, it really wouldn't.” Louis grinned at him and jogged backwards away from the ball. “Good luck.” he winked at Zayn.

 

They kicked off the game and Louis was impressed with Zayn's skills, handling the ball so easily. Sadly, he wasn't really a match against Louis and Stan who had been playing together for around ten years and really knew when and what the other one would be doing. Astonishing was also how aggressive Cara played, always on the brink of doing something she wasn't really allowed to do, taking advantage of the fact that they didn't have a referee on the field. The big problem of the other team was that they didn't have any organisation, they couldn't play off of each other. It was easier on Louis' team. He might not have already played with each of them earlier but he had with most of them, and the others had played together as well. They knew each other, they could read each other's body language, they could get what the other was trying to say with their glances. Louis had tried playing against Harry, just to see how he was doing, and although he really wasn't a bad player, he was too distracting for Louis. It wasn't easy to concentrate on a ball when there were butterflies organising a riot in his stomach. So he kept the rest of the game trying to subtly avoid the right side of the field. Their first goal came after about ten minutes, shot by Niall, who jumped on Louis back after scoring and drag them both down to the ground. It didn't take long for their second one to fall, this time scored by Louis himself who casually ran up to Harry to grin in his face, and although he looked a bit pissed, he also looked so fond of him. It wasn't easy to look threatening to someone when every time that person smiled at you you transformed into blushing teenager. The other team tried a few times to get through to their own goal, even shooting a few times at it, but Julian and Bressie were genuinely good at defence and Louis was impressed with his own team. He would have to thank Niall later for putting them together.

 

His alarm went off right when he wanted to start another attack. Ed fell to the ground backwards with a loud grunt and most of the others stopped on the spot, breathless. Harry went to lay down on his stomach next to Ed, falling down like a limp pancake.

“Oh come on Harold, I expected a little more from you.” He mocked as he jogged over to them. Harry's only response was some unidentifiable mumble.

“You are so boring.” He said and sat down on his back, knocking the wind out of Harry.

“Let the poor guy live.” Stan told him, sitting down on the grass next to them.

“Thank you.” Harry grunted, still not moving under Louis weight.

“Shut up, you're supposed to be on my side.” Louis tried to shove Stan but he just swatted his hand away.

“I hope there is a reward at the end of this. Like pizza.” Ed moaned, limbs spread wide apart.

“Yeah, why not. I don't think anyone would mind.” Louis answered, trying to think of a place where they could fit 20 people in.

“Hey, Niall, call Dominos and tell them we'll be over in an hour or so.” He yelled across the field, not even bothering to ask who didn't want to join in.

 

The second half started much slower and they almost scored right away until Harry's team finally woke up and pushed back. He was too busy concentrating on Zayn to realise that Cara was right behind him, easily taking the ball from Zayn and running up to their goal to score. Louis could let that sit, he wasn't going to let a bunch of film geeks beat him in his favourite activity. About five minutes later he scored again, beautifully, diving across the field and hitting the ball with his head. His hands might hurt a bit now but there are worst thing to endure for art. They played a little rougher than officially allowed, grabbing and dragging at shirts, pushing people away, maybe taking them down with them as they slide across the field. Luckily no one got hurt. Or at least not seriously hurt, scratched knees and elbows didn't count. Just before the alarm went off again Zayn scored, after an impressive back and forth between him and Harry. Louis team erupted in cheers as the alarm rang, Louis jumping up on Stan's back and running a round across the field. Bressie and Julian took Niall up on their shoulders, one leg each, while the other team mockingly booed them. They didn't forget their manners though, shaking everyone's hand before going to the changing rooms. It felt a bit silly to shake Harry's hand, trying to keep his face from splitting in two and releasing the sun that grew in him every time he looked him in the eyes.

 

~

 

Niall had booked half the restaurant for them, but unfortunately they had to sit on small tables. Louis hair was still damp from the shower. Harry had put his up in a bun which didn't make it any less wet and Louis reckoned that it would just dry less fast like that, so he didn't really understand the motive behind it. But it looked good on him, so he wasn't about to complain about it. He sat in between Niall and Harry, with Zayn, Ed, and Liam on the other side. The others weren't far away and Louis only stopped shouting stuff over to Stan when he caught the glare of one of the waiters. It wasn't even really time to eat yet, normally he would still wait an hour or two before dinner, but his stomach was growling and he wasn't about to say no to pizza.

 

“Is pizza gonna be like, our food now?” Harry whispered in his ear.

“Isn't that the most romantic thing in the world?” he asked back sarcastically, catching Zayn's stare like he knew what was going on. Maybe Harry had told him, maybe they weren't very subtle. Anyway, better to be careful than to regret anything afterwards. It didn't help though that Harry's knuckles circled slow patterns on his tight and maybe, just maybe, no one would notice if Louis intertwined their fingers under the table. He just wanted to lean his whole body into Harry's side, wrap his arms around him and finally get to kiss him. It had been over two hours that they had been around each other and he still hadn't gotten to kiss him. He rubbed his thumb over the side of Harry's hand, concentrating on the part of their bodies that did touch, telling himself that he only had to survive another few hours before he could take him home.

 

“Where are you gonna shoot after this?” Niall asked Harry.

“We'll be close to Inverness in Scotland, in like this small, old village with these really charming houses.” Harry explained.

“And probably no internet.” Zayn added under his breath.

“And then we'll go for a few days to shoot in a forest a bit further east.” Harry continued without acknowledging Zayn.

“Where we'll have even less internet.” Zayn murmured looking like he started to regret agreeing to do this movie.

“So we'll be done in probably three to four weeks if everything works out. They'll really look over the material we already have soon to see if we have to come back here and re-shoot anything but with the way the budget looks I don't think we'll be able to.” Harry told them.

“When is it gonna be out?” Liam asked excitedly.

“You'll still have to wait a little for it, mate.” Ed smiled, lightly shaking his head. “Probably in a year or so. There's still post production and promo and everything that has to be done.”

“Oh yeah, right.” Liam agreed.

 

The waiter came with their drinks and Louis took his hand away from under the table again. It would probably start being suspicious when both of them just kept the same hand away from the tabletop for the whole evening. Harry's hand stayed on his thigh though, stroking up and down very slowly. It was comforting but also very, very distracting. Louis put both his elbows on the table, hands up in front of his face for the semblance of a cover. He turned his face to Harry, leaning against his hands. Harry wasn't looking at him, absent mindedly drinking from his glass. A drop got caught on the border of his lip, like the cherry on a perfect cake. He swept his thumb over it, sticking his tongue out a bit before bringing his thumb to his lips and sucking the liquid away. Only then did he look at Louis, slow blinks, his hand circling closer to the inside of his thigh. Or maybe it was just because Louis was moving his leg more towards Harry. His eyes focused on Harry's mouth, on how his teeth grazed over his bottom lip, on how his lips were faintly apart afterwards.

 

It took Niall hitting him under the table for him to snap out of it.

“What the ..?” he murmured and turned to him but he was only staring at him with one eyebrow raised. Ok, Louis got his point. That was probably not the best idea if you wanted to stay on the down low. So no more staring at Harry, how hard could that be? Pretty hard, he reckoned. Especially with Harry's hand still on his thigh slowly inching closer to somewhere it really shouldn't be. He took a swig from his corona and trying to concentrate on what the other boys were saying. Thankfully their pizzas didn't take long to come and Harry had to take his hand away from under the table to eat.

 

~

 

Louis survived the dinner pretty much undamaged. They had settled for only having their legs brush against each other under the table but the constant contact made him restless for more. Niall had promised to drive them back to Louis place, thankful that the others were also mixing up their driving arrangements and they didn't need to find an excuse why they needed to be in the same car. He also drove Liam home, who was sitting shotgun while Harry and Louis were trying not to pounce at each other. Both of the boys knew about them anyway so it wasn't too weird that Harry was sitting in the middle next to Louis and not on the other side of the car.

“I don't wanna see any weird stains on my seats afterwards, ok?” Niall looked at them through the rear-view mirror.

“Shut up, your car would be happy to finally see some action.” Louis snapped back at him.

“No, you can't just take his innocence away like that.” Harry frowned at him, caressing over the car seat like he was trying to reassure the vehicle.

“Yes Louis, what kind of a monster are you?” Niall added, trying hard not to laugh.

“Why is your heart so cold, Louis? When did you stop caring about the car? When did you stop caring about all of us?” Liam chimed in, a bit too over dramatic.

“Think about the children, Louis!” Niall yelled. Harry was a giggling mess next to him.

“I hate every single one of you.” Louis sighed.

“Nooooo.” Harry drawled out, looking upset.

“Even the car?” Niall asked in shock.

“Even your fucking car.” Louis answered, pushing his knee into Niall's seat in front of him.

“Aaaaah.” Niall cried out, swerving the car on the road like he was dodging something which only earned him a punch from Liam in the arm.

 

At least Niall had the decency to drop them off first and they couldn't be out of the car fast enough. They were up the stairs in a heart beat and Louis didn't actually want to wait until the door was open so he pushed Harry against it and pressed his lips against Harry's. He had his hands on Harry's hips, fingers tentatively brushing underneath his shirt to get a taste of what his skin felt like. Harry's hands dragged through his hair and down his neck, their teeth constantly brushing over their lips. He couldn't keep himself from moaning into Harry's mouth, pressing his whole body against Harry's, hands wandering up his sides under his shirt. His hips were so soft, a complete contrast to the firmness of the rest of his torso. They really should be taking this inside before one of his neighbours unexpectedly came up the stairs.

 

“Wait.” he breathed out and tried to get Harry to stop. “Wait, wait. I have to open the door.” He fished his keys out of his back pocket, Harry's mouth dropping to his neck and sucking at it, his tongue licking over his skin. It wasn't easy to focus on opening the door like that, especially since most of his blood had already vacated his brain, but he somehow managed to do it rather quickly. He pushed the door open and Harry almost fell into his apartment, taking his coat and shoes off in one instance. They just dropped it all to the ground, not really caring about tidiness in that moment. Their lips met again and Louis pulled Harry by his shirt towards his bedroom. He hoped to God that Dave was lying on the couch and not in his bedroom. Harry closed the door behind them while Louis ran his fingers down his torso and opened the buttons of his shirt, spreading his fingers over the naked skin, dragging them up to his shoulders and pushing the fabric off of them. His hands went up Harry's neck while Harry tried to get his arms out of the shirt sleeves, with their mouths still locked. His hands came to cup Louis' ass afterwards, pressing their bodies together and Louis could feel Harry's hard dick line up against his. He pushed Harry around and against the edge of his bed, climbing into his lap when he had sat down. He was grinding his ass into Harry's crotch, making Harry moan into his mouth while his hands wandered from Louis' ass up his sides and back.

 

“Off.” Harry muttered. “Take it off.” He tried to push Louis' t-shirt away without loosing contact with his lips. Louis pulled back just long enough to let his t-shirt drop to the floor, being back on Harry's lips in the fraction of a second. He pulled lightly on Harry's hair making him drop his head back so that he could kiss along his jaw and down his neck, biting every now and then. His dick was getting so hard in his pants and he couldn't keep himself from dragging it along the line of Harry's, desperate for the friction. Harry's hands wandered under the seam of his pants, palming his ass over his briefs. Louis pushed him down, his left arm next to Harry's head while his right hand ran along his torso, two fingers brushing over one of his nipples. Harry's breath hitched at that, his hips lightly bucking up. His hands were now underneath Louis' underwear, almost pulling his pants down while trying to cup the whole of Louis' ass. Louis hand shot down to where their crotches met, palming Harry through his pants. He kissed a path down his collarbones, licking over the edge of the swallow tattoos, letting his teeth graze lightly over his nipple, leaving the ghost of a kiss on the butterfly. He undid Harry's pants without looking at it, slipping his hand underneath his briefs to wrap his fingers over his dick. He dragged it along lazily, letting his thumb brush over the tip. Harry had closed his eyes, breaths coming out shallow. Louis really needed to see him naked right now. This boy had transformed his bedroom into a museum solemnly for his body. Louis knew that you weren't supposed to touch the art but to hell with integrity. Life wasn't worth it if you only got to live it with your eyes.

 

He pushed Harry's pants down his hips, making quick work of his own zipper while Harry took his pants off completely and let them drop to the ground. He leaned up, letting Harry take his pants off for him and drop back down to press their lips together again the second his own pants hit the ground. Harry's breath stuttered when his hand wrapped around both of their cocks, his own hands wandering over Louis whole body like he didn't know what to do with them, like he just wanted to touch Louis everywhere at the same time, impatient, uncontrollable. Louis breathed against Harry's lips, their faces only inches apart, as his hand moved along the length of their shafts. Harry's hips bucked up unsteadily, trying to catch up with Louis' rhythm. He sweetest sounds escaped his lips, like he didn't even realise he was making them. Louis could tell by how fast he was breathing that he was close, his hands gripping tight to his thighs, pressing into his flesh. Louis could feel the heat in his own stomach, dropping lower and lower with every moan that escaped Harry's lips.

 

Just a few more strokes and then Harry was coming, digging his fingers into Louis flesh so that he was certain to leave marks, his back arching of the bed, head dropping backwards, quiet cries leaving his mouth. Louis came with his face pressed against Harry's neck, moaning against his skin as Harry stroked his thumb against his skin. They were both covered in cum, breathlessly, bathing in their own heat. Louis collapsed to his side, wrapping one leg over Harry's hip and nuzzling his face into his chest. Harry planted a soft kiss to the top of his head, lazily stroking a hand over Louis' back.

 

“I'm freezing me ass off.” Louis whispered and pushed himself off the bed after ten minutes of just snoozing on Harry. He planted a light kiss to Harry's lips and then walk over to the bathroom, getting a wet cloth to clean both of them up.

“You wanna spend the night here?” he asked, sitting down on Harry's lap and wipe the cloth over his stomach.

“Sure.” Harry said, voice still rough, looking up at him through hazy eyes.

“You want a t-shirt or something to sleep in with?” He asked, wiping the cloth over his own stomach.

“No, I'm fine, I usually sleep naked anyway.” Harry put an arm over his eyes, looking two seconds away from falling asleep.

“Kinky.” Louis said under his breath, standing up to put the wash cloth back into the bathroom. He put on a new pair of underwear and walked over to Harry, nudging his leg with his knee. “Just because I'm allowing you to sleep in me bed doesn't mean you get to sleep in it like a savage, Harold.”

Harry grunted but pulled himself up and slipped under the covers, lying on his stomach, face pressed into the pillow.

“I'm not gonna be the one to wake you up when you suffocate at night.” Louis murmured and got under the covers besides him. Turning to his facing Harry, placing a hand on the small of his back. Harry turned his head so that he could peak at him, eyes half closed, shy smile on his face.

“Good night.” He whispered into the dark.

“Good night.” Louis answered quietly, feeling warmer than he had ever felt in his life.

 

~

 

Louis' alarm went off way too early. It was the last day he could spend with Harry and he wasn't even available for most of it. He turned around without opening his eyes, feeling around until his fingers brushed over Harry's skin and pulling himself closer to him, one arm over his waist, face nuzzling into his neck.

“Good morning.” Harry said with a rough voice. Louis just grunted in response. Harry wrapped his arms around him, laying a soft kiss to his temple. Louis breathed in, trying to engrave Harry's smell into his memory. A quiet meow came from outside. Dave wasn't used to his door being closed during the night, he was already surprised that he hadn't started meowing earlier.

“Does he wanna come in?” Harry asked concerned.

“He can damn well stay outside for one night.” Louis groaned. He would hit Harry if he got up now just to let the cat enter.

“I need to go pee anyway, I can just let him in on my way to the bathroom.” Harry said softly. Louis moaned, nuzzling his nose deeper into Harry's neck.

“I really have to pee.” Harry whispered. Louis turned over with a loud groan, burying his face into the cold pillow. Harry kissed him on the back of his head and got out of bed. The room lit up for a split second and a moment later he could feel the slightest dip in the mattress. Dave came to sit behind his head, purring contently into his ear as he started licking his hair. He didn't know when Dave had adopted him as his child, probably the first time he had realised that Louis wasn't exactly the perfect material for being an adult, but he had been mothering him ever since. It was kind of annoying in general, but it also made him feel loved and that was undoubtedly the best feeling in the world.

 

Harry leaned over him, kissing up his side until he could whisper in his ear. “Don't you have to get up?”

“You were way more fun when I had your dick in my hand.” he groaned into his pillow.

“I can be fun again.” Harry breathed against his skin, licking the lightest of line across his neck. He was thinking it over, he could probably gain a few minutes in the shower and eat breakfast at work, but Dave constantly purring and nuzzling his face into his hair was kind of killing the mood.

“You have to throw the cat out first if you wanna start anything.” Louis rubbed his hand over his still closed eyes, trying to get the sleep out of them.

“Hmmm...” Harry sat up, sounding like he was thinking about it. He rolled off Louis, lying down on his side and pulling Dave closer to his chest. “The poor thing already had to spend the whole night alone.” Harry said with a frown. Louis pushed himself up on his elbows and shook his head in disbelief.

“You really care more about this cat than about me.” he stated and Harry only pouted at him, stroking over Dave's fur as he rolled himself up into a ball next to his chest. Louis rolled his eyes at him but he couldn't really hide the smile that was forming on his face. Harry might be an idiot, but he was a damn endearing one. Louis finally got up and walked over to his closet, pulling out new clothes and walking over to the bathroom.

 

~

 

Louis had been nervous all day. With every second that went by he could feel Harry' departure creeping in. He had been distracted at the coffee shop all day, staring holes into the air instead of actually doing work, just a constant rotation of “this is the worst idea of my life” and “It will all be fine” in his head. Niall had shot him concerned looks all morning and that really wasn't his style. He was happy that he didn't have a shift with Liam though, because he would have probably been so worried that Louis wouldn't have had any other choice but to murder him. The problem was that there really wasn't anything he could do right now. It was too late to get out of this unharmed and breaking things off now wouldn't help either. The only thing left to do was wait and see how it went. Even if he didn't have a lot of confidence in the situation. Which again made him scared that he would fuck it up by being too negative about it.

 

He paced around his apartment, waiting for Harry to come over. He even had tidied up the place because he needed something to do with his hands and playing Fifa definitely wasn't enough. Niall had told him to get something fancy to eat and some wine, although to find a middle lane between fancy and cheap wasn't really easy. He settled on this really good sushi Lottie had told him about and not the cheapest red wine, who cared if it went together or not. For once he had actually taken care of his hair, putting it up into a quiff. He was wearing his best pair of black skinny jeans, the ones which his ass looked amazing in, and a loose, red shirt that had a plunging neckline that revealed his chest tattoo. With how wild his emotions were going at that moment he wasn't even cold. Dave had been running around like mad all afternoon, jumping from the couch onto the table and even managing to get up on the shelf. At first he thought that he just needed his ten minutes again but now he was pretty sure that he had caught on to Louis' own state of mind.

 

The doorbell rang and he almost sprinted to the intercom. He opened the door and stood in the entrance, arms crossed, leg bobbing up and down, until he could see Harry come up the stairs. He wore washed out black jeans, a simple, half-way unbuttoned white dress shirt that he had tucked loosely into his pants, and dark brown, leather boots. The outfit was so simple but he looked incredible in it. Louis had never felt this blessed and undeserving in his life.

“Hi.” Harry greeted him with a huge grin.

“Hi.” Louis said shyly, all his worries just melting away with the happiness this boy radiated out. Harry came closer to him, putting his right hand on Louis' hip and leaned in for a kiss. Louis put both his hands on Harry's chest, fingers brushing against the naked skin.

“How was your day?” Harry whispered against his lips.

“Alright I would say.” he shrugged. “How was yours?”

“It's gotten a thousand times better now that I'm here.” Harry grinned. Louis groaned and rolled his eyes, turning away from Harry to walk into his apartment.

“I'm not letting you in if you insist on being so cheesy.” Louis stated, looking at him with one raised eyebrow. Harry just smirked at him unabashed, pushing his way past Louis.

“You love it.” he whispered into Louis ear which only had a sliver of truth in it. Harry walked into the kitchen and put the plastic bag he had around his left wrist on the table.

 

“What's that?” Louis asked, nodding his head in the direction of the plastic bag.

“Oh I just got us some cupcakes from the bakery.” Harry explained, rummaging through the bag. “And I got you this.” He took out a little black box and extended it towards Louis. He looked at it suspiciously, not sure what to make of it.

“Thank you.” He said slowly, almost like a question. He took the box in his hand, opening it slowly. In it was a necklace, a single obsidian ring with a music note in it.

“You got me a necklace?” Louis asked astonished.

“Yeah, I just thought it would look pretty on you.” Harry answered bashfully.

“Thanks.” Louis said, smiling down at it. He wasn't really the type to wear necklaces but this one was simple and kind of delicate that he would mind wearing it. “Here, put it on me.” He handed it to Harry and his face just lit up, every apprehension vanishing from it. Louis turned around and let Harry pull the necklace over his neck, the cold metal lying heavy on his chest.

“It's really nice.” Louis said softly, turning around to Harry again.

“I'm glad that you like it.” Harry smiled and drove a hand through his hair.

 

Louis turned around before he would start to blush, getting the wine out of the fridge. He turned towards Harry again and waved it at him, raising his eyebrows seductively. He put it down on the table, got out the fancy wine glasses his mother had bought for him and went to get the corkscrew. He was about pour it into the glasses when Harry interjected.

“No, you have to let it breath first.” Louis stopped and looked up at him in disbelief. He wasn't too sure if ten pound wine really gained anything by breathing but he wasn't about to admit how cheap the wine was. He put it down resolutely without breaking the eye contact with Harry. He took the two plates he had already prepared the sushi on earlier out of the fridge and put it on either side of the table. Harry frowned and looked between the sushi and the wine like he wasn't too sure that would really fit together, but then just shrugged and sat down.

“So when _are_ we allowed to drink the wine?” Louis asked and sat down opposite Harry, putting the little bowl with soy sauce in the middle.

“Well, ideally you would pour it into a carafe and then let it sit for about thirteen minutes.” Harry explained.

“Yeah, no.” Louis just said and poured the wine into their glasses. He wasn't about to wait half an hour just for it to maybe taste a little different. Harry chuckled, taking the glass Louis was offering him.

“To you becoming the next Ian McKellen and rocking both stage and screen and to me finding me courage to sing me mother a song.” Louis toasted.

“To you selling out Madison Square Garden.” Harry added, clinking their glasses together.

“Let's not dream too big.” Louis retorted and took a sip of his glass.

“You just need to find a bit of confidence.” Harry smiled softly at him.

 

They joked around a lot during dinner, Harry apparently making it his mission to ruin the evening with the worst jokes he knew, which only evolved into jokes every fifty year old man told at family gatherings. Thankfully Louis was starting to get tipsy and really far gone for this boy. Louis told him all the crap his siblings had done when they were little and how he had always taken the blame for it when it had been something a bit too serious, although he now suspected that his mum knew all along. Harry told him about his own sister and how close they were and that he missed her and his mum very dearly every time he had to travel for a movie. It was nice to just talk about their families like that, pouring out all the love they had for them. Louis already couldn't wait to meet Harry's parents with how lovely he made them sound, even if he wasn't sure he would actually ever get to meet them. By the time they had finished the bottle of wine was empty, they had been done eating for over an hour and it was snowing outside.

 

“You know what would be lovely now?” Harry asked when they finally got out of the kitchen. “A Christmas movie.”

“Really?” Louis looked at him in disbelief, picking up Dave from the couch. “It's the last day you can spend with me and you wanna watch Christmas movies?”

“Yeah.” Harry answered shyly with big eyes. Louis couldn't really tell him no when he looked like that, and he guess it would fit the atmosphere right now. Maybe spending his evening cuddled up to Harry watching a mushy, happy holiday movie while a cat was purring on his stomach and snow was slowly falling down in front of his windows wasn't actually that bad.

“Alright, which one?” he asked and let himself fall down on the couch.

“Harry Potter is nice.” Harry came to sit next to him.

“Harry Potter isn't a Christmas movie Harold. That's like saying Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Just because something is set during the Christmas time doesn't mean that it's a Christmas movie.” Louis rolled his eyes and him and draped his legs over Harry's lap.

“But Die Hard is a Christmas movie.” Harry grinned, taking Dave away from him so that he could grab the x-box controller and open up the Netflix app.

“I can't believe you right now.” he murmured and shook his head. “Oh, oh, oh, let's watch the Grinch.” he blurted out, starting the movie without waiting for Harry's response. Harry held out his arm so that Louis could come snuggle into his side. Louis tried his best to just enjoy the moment but with the constant thoughts of this possibly being the last time he got to be like this with Harry, he couldn't bring himself to be fully content.

 

~

 

They had ended up watching Love actually too and drinking hot cocoa, bundled up in blankets with candles illuminating the room. The film had just ended and Louis was arguing with himself if he should put on another one because maybe if they never went to bed the night would never end and Harry could just stay here with him. They sat in silence for a while, Harry drawing small circles on the skin of Louis' ankle.

“Harry?” Louis asked quietly. “Please tell me this isn't the last time we'll see each other.”

“Definitely not.” Harry answered firmly. “It's only another month and then I'll be done with this. I can come and visit you right after. Maybe even earlier when I have a free weekend.” Louis looked him in the eyes and he knew that Harry meant it, that Harry would try and visit him as often as possible, but it didn't really reassure Louis.

“You know that I won't be able to come live in London, and I can't ask you to come live here, that would just kill your career.” Louis shook his head, trying to put his thoughts into words.

“I'm not asking you to come to London, we can make this work like this. It isn't that far away, we can just, like, come visit each other on the weekends and stuff.” Harry frowned, turning his body more towards Louis.

 

“Harry you're busy all the time and I'm poor. I can't afford going to London every weekend.” Louis said. He really wanted to believe in this but he didn't want to hope for something that might never come true.

“Listen to me. I know this is a shitty situation and I know we've only met three weeks ago, but I like you. I really, really like you. And maybe this isn't going to go anywhere and then we'll fall out of it but then at least we'll have tried. And maybe, in a few months or so, when things have changed and we've survived all the distance and, like, not seeing each other, we will end up in the same place.” Harry told him, intertwining their fingers. “I don't want to let you go.” he whispered and a part of his heart broke with how desperate Harry sounded, but he couldn't make himself forget about it. He wished he could just switch his brain off and stop being so apprehensive about the situation. But of course that didn't work, because Louis was light hearted about everything in life except what really mattered.

 

Harry leaned in over him, pressing their lips together in a reckless kiss, like he was trying to convince Louis with it. His hands burning on Louis' skin. His touches so dire like he was scared he was about to lose him, to never see him again, and Louis just wanted to tell him that the reason he was so scared, was that he had never felt so intensely about anything besides music before. He leaned back on the sofa, Harry lodged between his legs, sucking kisses down his neck while his hands gripped tight to his hips. Louis pulled up his legs, bracketing Harry with his knees. He ran both his hands through Harry's hair, pulling the slightest bit. Harry moaned against his neck, his hands running up over his skin underneath his t-shirt. Louis pulled his face up to him, pressing their lips together again, letting his tongue run wild against Harry's mouth. He hissed in sharply when Harry's hand grabbed his crotch, bucking up his hips to meet his touch. He palmed his dick through his jeans, stroking it up and down while slightly biting down on Louis' lower lip. Louis was hard and panting in no time at all. His hands wandered to Harry's chest, opening up the last few buttons and pulling the shirt off of his shoulders. Harry pushed his t-shirt over his head and let it fall to the ground next to his own shirt.

 

He kissed a trail down Louis' chest, licking faintly over his nipples until he arrived at his belly button. His fingers made quick work of Louis zipper, pulling down his pants and underwear in one motion. Louis didn't know what to do with his hands, deciding to just put them over his head. His breath was coming out in little puffs. Harry planted light kissed down his naval, brushing his nose along the light trail of hair. His hand gripped his cock, stroking it up and down lazily until his tongue liked up a line on the side of it. It flicked over Louis' slit, licking a slow circle around it, driving Louis crazy with the anticipation. It took him all his concentration not to cock his hips up. Harry's lips embraced the tip of his cock and he sucked his cheeks in, licking over his slit and swallowing the pre-cum. He slowly lowered his head and then pulled it back up again, repeating it, always going just a bit further. Louis brushed one of his hands through Harry's hair, placing the other arm over his eyes.

 

Harry's motions got faster, more erratic, and Louis could feel the heat boiling up in him.

“Shit.” he murmured, his hips moving up and down in Harry's rhythm. “Fuck, Harry, I'm gonna come.” he breathed out but Harry didn't seem to make efforts to move away. His hand came to grip Louis hips, pinning him down while his head bobbed up and down faster. “Harry. Fuck.” He cried out, his hips pushing against Harry's hand as he came. His hand gripped tight in Harry's hair as he sucked him off through his orgasm. His breathing calmed down while Harry planted soft kisses to the inside of his thighs. He put two fingers along Harry's jaw, pulling him up to meet his mouth. He could taste himself inside Harry's mouth but it didn't really bother him as much as it should. His hand wandered down along Harry's chest until he could palm Harry's dick through his pants. He was rock hard, grinding against Louis hand while he moaned into his kiss. Louis opened his pants with one hand, slipping it underneath his underwear to grip his dick. It only took a few strokes before Harry was coming into his hand, little breaths escaping his lips.

 

He collapsed over Louis, nuzzling his face into his neck. Louis contently stroked his head with the hand that wasn't smeared with cum.

“We should probably head to bed.” he whispered and planted a kiss against his hair.

 

 

 

~

 

Louis woke up before his alarm clock. The faintest of light pierced through his curtains, coming to lie on Harry's face like a feather. He looked like a masterpiece, like art that shouldn't be disturbed, calm, serene, peaceful. Louis let his finger ghost along his cheek, down his jaw, never really touching him. He had never seen another human being look so soft and yet so sharp. The line of his jaw looked like it could cut you and stood in the utmost contrast to how delicate his lips seemed to be. His eyebrows were relaxed and where they would normally make him look all grown-up and serious, they gave him an air of innocence. Louis thumb brushed over his cheekbone, just having to make sure he was an actual physical entity. Harry's eyes slowly blinked open, little puffs of air escaping his nose. Louis grazed his skin, drawing faint lines all over his face. He couldn't bring himself to smile at him, not when this was the last time he would be able to see him like this.

 

It just hit him then. How much he adored this boy, how much he meant to him. He didn't know how it could have happened so fast, how so much could have changed in so little time, but it had and everything else just seemed a little bit brighter when he was around.

“I'm in love with you.” Louis whispered into the silence, brushing his finger along the line of Harry's jaw. A small smile formed on Harry's lips and he looked at him like Louis was the only thing that could ever hold any meaning to him. He pulled him closer by the small of his back and pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

“I'm in love with you too.” he whispered against Louis lips before pressing another kiss against them, gentle, careful, full of love. “I promise I will come back as soon as possible.” he added.

“Yeah, I'll survive it. I just have to be a little less over dramatic.” Louis chuckled.

“I'll call you ten times a day.” Harry said and planted a bunch of little kisses all over his face.

“Jesus, no, I'll end up hating you like that.” He giggled and pushed Harry away. He climbed out of bed and threw Harry's shirt into his face.

“Get up, you have to go be a movie star somewhere else.”

 

**Harry Styles (@HarryStyles)**

I had a wonderful time in Doncaster. Can't wait to get back there as soon as possible. Now it's on to new adventures. All the Love, H xx

 

**L to the W (@TheTommoWay)**

@HarryStyles Have fun in Scotland !!!! Can't wait for you to come back either

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I wanna thank the lovely, lovely Kerry (bluebandanax.tumblr.com) for reading over this on such a short notice <3  
> I didn't anticipate this becoming such a long story and I didn't expect myself to be so invested in it but I'll probably end up writing a sequel (at some point ... don't hold your breath for it, it might take some time ...).  
> The song that's coming up a few times in the fic is feeling good by Nina Simone.  
> If you find any mistakes or have any suggestions please let me know! It would be a great help for my improvement. Also I was low-key stressed throughout most of this because I'm always late with everything in my life, so improvements could probably still be made ....  
> I also go by ifidoitsyou on tumblr so just come over and say hi =)


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